Polk reported 247 new cases in the latest notice from state health officials, bringing his growing total to 4,906. In the first three days of July, the county has registered 855 new cases, an average of 285 per day. Polk climbed to number 9 on the county list for most cases.
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The weekend of July 4 started on Saturday with some sobering numbers in the Sunshine State: Florida recorded a record number of people testing positive for the coronavirus.
The state continued its rapid increase in coronavirus cases after the Florida Department of Health reported 11,458 new cases. That total is just behind New York’s single-day national maximum of 11,571 set in mid-April.
The total number of COVID-19 cases across the state now stands at 190,052, which is the fourth most in the country, behind New York (420,774), California (252,252) and Texas (190,387). The numbers for those states were through Friday.
New York, which has more than 420,000 cases, suffered its deluge in April and has averaged approximately 660 new cases per day in the past two weeks. During that same period, Florida averages over 6,900 new cases (97,049) and Texas averages 5,700.
Polk reported 247 new cases in the latest notice from state health officials, bringing his growing total to 4,906. In the first three days of July, the county has registered 855 new cases, an average of 285 per day.
In the past seven days, Polk has been reported with 1,664 cases among county residents, a revealing average of nearly 240 per day. With the recent increase in cases, Polk moved Collier (4,880) to No. 9 for the state’s top counties for COVID-19 positive tests.
Polk has been in triple digits for new cases 11 consecutive days and 15 of the last 16.
With a positive test rate in Saturday’s report of 14.5% (247 cases per 1,454 tests performed), Polk has been in double digits for nine consecutive days, including a record rate of 18.8% reported on Friday, and 12 of the past 14.
Polk’s overall positive test rate is now 9.5%, which matches the state’s new rate after record cases reported on Saturday. That’s a significant number as health experts cite 10% as a critical standard for severe virus transmission.
Florida recorded 18 more deaths on Saturday, reaching 3,803, including non-residents. Polk’s death toll remained at 105.
The state’s total number of cases has increased by 209% since the reopening of Phase 2 began on June 5 (61,488). The bars were closed a second time during the June 26 pandemic to try to limit the spread of the virus. Since June 5 (1,127), Polk has seen a whopping 335% increase in cases, rising by 3,779 since Governor Ron DeSantis expanded the state’s reopening process.
The total number of people who have been hospitalized increased to 15,735, or 8.3% of cases. The Department of Health notes that the total number is cumulative and does not reflect the number of COVID-19 patients currently in hospitals.
Polk’s hospitalization rate for COVID-19 cases was reported at 10.2% on Saturday (498 hospitalizations for 4,906 cases).
The 25-34 age group continues to lead the number of cases in Polk with 953, followed by 35-44 with 881, 15-24 with 758, 45-54 with 706, 55-64 with 547, 65-74 with 381 , 75-84 with 258, 5-14 with 176, 85-plus with 157 and 0-4 with 88.
The median age for cases in both Polk and the state dropped from one year to 39 years on Saturday.
The center of Polk’s continued increase in cases is Lakeland and Winter Haven.
Lakeland climbed to a tie at No. 19 with Tallahassee among Florida cities with the most positive tests at 1,569. Winter Haven dropped one place to number 33 on the list with 1,090 cases.
More than 11.1 million people worldwide have tested positive for COVID-19, and more than 526,000 have died. In the United States, there were 2,815,156 cases reported with 129,509 deaths, Johns Hopkins University reported at noon on Saturday.
Joel Engelhardt with the Palm Beach Post and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
