Florida coronavirus: State reports over 6K new cases, percent of positive results still high at 17%

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – Florida reported more than 6,000 new cases of coronavirus on Monday, dropping significantly from Sunday’s grave milestone that pushed the 200,000-case threshold.

The state reported ‭6,336‬ new cases on Sunday morning, bringing the total number of cases in Florida to 206,447.

The health department reported 150 new hospitalizations and 47 new deaths. There have been 3,778 total deaths in Florida residents and 102 non-resident deaths. A total of 16,045 Floridians have been hospitalized since the beginning of the pandemic.

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 14.97% on Sunday.

The total percent positive of all tests – including people who have been tested on multiple days – was 17.25%. The state says 36,930 negative test results were received while 7,697 people tested positive.

The state says it received 44,627 test results on Sunday. That does not mean that’s how many people were tested that day, just how many lab results were received by the state.

“We’ve not only got more expansive testing, again that’s definitely part of it, but we’ve absolutely got community spread,” University of South Florida Associate Professor of Epidemiology Dr. Jason Salemi told 8 On Your Side’s Justin Schecker.

According to Dr. Salemi, the curves for every single age group are going up when it comes to coronavirus cases. The median age of cases on Sunday was 38.

According to Sunday’s report, people in the 25 to 34 age group account for the largest percentage of coronavirus cases throughout the state. There have been 42,305 people in that age group who have tested positive – about 21% of the state’s total cases.

The chief of infectious diseases at Moffitt told us last month when coronavirus cases in Florida started spiking that ICU capacity was a concern for hospitals.

“I would say hospitals and all of their administrators are very concerned, they communicate with each other, and everybody is seeing the same increase in filling up their hospitals with coronavirus patients,” Dr. John Greene told 8 On Your Side’s Mahsa Saeidi on June 24.

Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration reported Sunday morning that four hospitals in Pinellas County had run out of ICU beds.

But Baycare Health Chief Medical Officer Dr. Nishant Anand appeared on CNN this weekend and pointed out a positive: He says there are more recoveries now because doctors have a better grasp of how to treat the infected compared to earlier in the pandemic.

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