Florida coronavirus: State reports over 10K new cases, largest single-day increase in hospitalizations

TAMPA (WFLA) — Florida health officials reported the highest daily increase of coronavirus-related hospitalizations on Wednesday. The state has also reached another milestone by surpassing 300,000 total coronavirus cases.

Florida hospitals have taken in an additional 453 patients, the latest daily report says. That means 19,334 residents have been hospitalized since the pandemic began.

The previous largest single-day increase was 435 hospitalizations.

The state reported 10,181 new cases of coronavirus and 112 more deaths Wednesday morning. A total of 4,521 Florida residents have died from the coronavirus, according to the Florida Department of Health.

Late last week, Florida finally started releasing the number of current coronavirus hospitalizations broken down by county. As of 11 a.m. ET on Tuesday, there were 8,305 people hospitalized throughout the state. Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Monday 2,000 additional contracted nurses would be spread throughout the state to respond to the virus outbreak.

The state received more tests on Tuesday – a total of 80,389 – than it did the day prior, which saw 67,137.

Of the total tests received on Monday, 16.58% were positive. The state says it received 67,059 negative results and 13,330 positive cases. The positive results include people who have tested positive more than once – for example, those who tested positive initially and were tested again to see if they still have the virus.

The percent positivity for new cases is 13.59%. Percent positivity for new cases is the number of people who test PCR (nose swabs) or antigen-positive for the first time divided by all the people tested that day. That does not include people who already tested positive once and have been re-tested to see if they’re still infected.

Floridians in the 25 to 34 age group account for the largest percentage of cases throughout the state. There are 61,158 confirmed cases in that age group, which is 21% of the state’s total.

Here is the county-by-county breakdown across Tampa Bay as of Wednesday:

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY

Total Cases: 21,018
Deaths: 192
Hospitalizations: 839

PINELLAS COUNTY

Total Cases: 12,080
Deaths: 278
Hospitalizations: 999

SARASOTA COUNTY

Total Cases: 3,447
Deaths: 100
Hospitalizations: 272

MANATEE COUNTY

Total Cases: 5,564
Deaths: 139
Hospitalizations: 368

POLK COUNTY

Total Cases: 8,206
Deaths: 155
Hospitalizations: 606

PASCO COUNTY

Total Cases: 4,363
Deaths: 36
Hospitalizations: 295

HERNANDO COUNTY

Total Cases: 987
Deaths: 10
Hospitalizations: 103

HIGHLANDS COUNTY

Total Cases: 627
Deaths: 13
Hospitalizations: 93

CITRUS COUNTY

Total Cases: 665
Deaths: 17
Hospitalizations: 74

HARDEE COUNTY

Total Cases: 633
Deaths: 4
Hospitalizations: 54

For more information on coronavirus in Florida, visit the live DOH Dashboard here.