Florida coronavirus: Over 6,500 new cases, 45 deaths in latest report

TAMPA (WFLA) — Florida health officials recorded more than 6,500 new cases of coronavirus Wednesday.

The 6,563 total new cases of COVID-19 in the state bring the state total to 158,997.

There were 45 new deaths reported Wednesday, bringing the state total to 3,550 since the beginning of the pandemic. There have been 14,825 total hospitalizations — up 245 from Tuesday.

Testing increased slightly on Tuesday – the state received 45,366 results from labs compared to the 43,411 it received on Monday. That’s still down from the spike in results we saw Wednesday through Saturday.

8 On Your Side has repeatedly heard from viewers who have struggled to get access to coronavirus tests throughout the bay area. It’s an issue we brought to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ attention when he visited Tampa last week. DeSantis told us capacity would be expanded at testing sites and that the state would help if needed.

The percent positivity for new cases — the number of people who tested positive for the first time divided by all the people tested that day — was 15.04% on Tuesday, up slightly from 14.54% on Monday.

The total percent of positive cases on Monday was 16.58%. The state reported a total of 37,846 negative test results and 7,520 positive results.

The total percent positive includes people who have been tested multiple times for coronavirus, but a person is only counted once for each day their result is received by the state.

Florida’s Department of Health has also been tracking the median age of positive cases each day. The median age for Tuesday was 36.

But the state report released Wednesday shows Floridians in the 25 – 34 age range still account for the largest percentage of cases. A total of 31,716 people in that age group have tested positive, which is 20% of the state’s total. Of those cases, 894 people have been hospitalized and 20 have died.