Florida coronavirus: State surpasses 640,000 total COVID-19 cases

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — The Florida Department of Health has officially reported over 640,000 total coronavirus cases across the state.

On Friday the state confirmed 3,198 new cases, bringing the total number of cases to 640,211.

Earlier in the week, the state reported the highest daily coronavirus case count since early August, which the state says can be attributed to an ‘unacceptable’ data dump by Quest Diagnostics.

The health department received 66,169 test results from labs across the state Thursday. Of the test results received Thursday, 6.95% were positive. The state says there were 66,169 negative results and 4,946 positives. This includes people who have been tested multiple times.

The percent positivity for new cases was 5.10% on Thursday. 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.

The state reported 100 total Florida-resident virus fatalities in the latest update. The report does not mention the exact date of death, therefore the deaths announced may not be from the past 24 hours. It can sometimes take weeks for fatalities to be logged. The Florida-resident death toll now stands at 11,750.

Florida also reported 239 new COVID-related hospitalizations. The total hospitalizations now stand at 39,667.

Here’s a county-by-county breakdown of cases in the Tampa Bay area: