Florida coronavirus cases near 1,500 as 55 more cases announced. Death toll rises to 20
The Florida Department of Health announced 55 additional positive COVID-19 cases on Tuesday evening, bringing the state total up to 1,467 cases, including a baby boy and a 2-year-old girl in Broward County, the state’s youngest cases.
Health officials also announced two more deaths, raising the death toll statewide to 20. The deaths occurred in Pinellas County, home to St. Petersburg and Clearwater, and Lee County, home to Fort Myers.
Of the new cases, 49 are Florida residents while six are not. In the state, 16,046 tests have been completed, and 1,221 are still pending.
On Tuesday morning, the health department announced 185 more positive cases statewide and the death of a 52-year-old man who had tested positive for COVID-19, making him the youngest person in Florida to die from COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
The death was the first in St. Johns County, known for its largest city, St. Augustine.
The Florida resident had recently traveled to Minneapolis and had been in contact with someone who had tested positive for the disease, according to health department data. His death was considered a “travel-related case.”
Earlier Tuesday, state health officials said two children, a baby boy and a 2-year-old girl, had tested positive for COVID-19 in Broward. The health department lists the boy’s age as zero, making him the youngest person in the state known to be ill with COVID-19.
An emergency room nurse at Jackson Memorial North who tested positive for the virus posted a video saying her 7-month-old son also tested positive.
Based on the state data, the previous COVID-19 deaths in Florida were individuals in their 70s and 80s, with the exception of a 68-year-old woman in Orange County and two Broward residents who were in their 90s.
Of the state’s total confirmed cases, 1,379 are Florida residents, while the other 88 are non-Florida residents who were diagnosed or isolated in the state. And South Florida continues to be the epicenter of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
COVID-19 cases in South Florida
Miami-Dade and Broward — two of the largest counties in the state — each have more than 300 confirmed cases of the disease. When combined, the counties make up nearly half of the total COVID-19 cases in Florida.
On Tuesday evening, the Florida Department of Health added 29 cases in Miami-Dade County, bringing the total up to 367. Just 78 of the total known cases are linked to travel, with 51 listed as not travel related and 238 listed as “travel unknown.”
In Broward County, one case was added, bringing the total to 312, with 94 of the cases linked to travel. Health officials said 113 of the cases in Broward are not travel-related, with 105 listed as “travel unknown.”
Palm Beach County also pushed past the 100-case mark Tuesday. Of the new cases in the state, three were in the county, bringing its total up to 104, with 27 of the total cases listed as travel-related. Officials say 21 of the cases are not travel-related, with 56 listed as travel unknown. Three people have died in Palm Beach County from COVID-19, health officials said.
The Florida Keys, which didn’t have its first confirmed COVID-19 case until last week, has reported its third case Tuesday morning. The woman, who is a Monroe County resident, is the county’s first “Travel Unknown” case, according to the COVID-19 dashboard.
Monroe also has announced its first hospitalization. It wasn’t immediately clear if the woman hospitalized was the newly announced case or one of the women who previously tested positive after returning from an overseas trip.
South Florida resident breakdown on ages, hospitalizations, deaths
Here’s a South Florida breakdown based on Florida’s Department of Health COVID-19 Data and Surveillance Dashboard:
Miami-Dade County: 367
▪ 354 are residents, 12 are non-residents and one is a resident not in Florida
▪ Age range is 10 to 88; average age is 47
▪ 0 deaths and 40 hospitalizations
Broward County: 312
▪ 298 are residents and 14 are non-residents
▪ Age range is 0 to 96; average age is 50
▪ Three deaths and 49 hospitalizations
Palm Beach County: 104
▪ 96 are residents, seven are non-residents and one is a resident not in Florida
▪ Age range is 6 to 88; average age is 55
▪ Three deaths and 19 hospitalizations
Monroe County: 3
▪ Three are residents
▪ Age range is 48 to 72; average age is 58
▪ Zero deaths and hospitalizations
This story was originally published March 24, 2020 at 11:23 AM.
