FL COVID Deaths Drop, Transmission Rate Remains High: White House

FLORIDA — COVID-19 cases remain steady in Florida with a slight uptick in new cases reported week over week as the latest Florida State Synopsis released by the White House Tuesday reports an 8.8 percent positivity rate.

That’s a .7 percent increase over the previous week with 200 new cases reported per 100,000 residents, the White House said.

At the same time, COVID-19 deaths in the Sunshine State have dropped 19 percent in the past week, the report said. In the past seven days, 332 new deaths — or 1.5 deaths per 100,000 residents — have been reported, the White House said.

The community transmission rate remains high in much of the state, as well, the White House said. Forty counties are considered to be in the “red zone” or high transmission area. Another 18 counties are in the “orange zone,” which has substantial transmission.

The Florida counties in “red zones” with high community transmission rates are:

• Miami-Dade
• Broward
• Hillsborough
• Orange
• Palm Beach
• Pinellas
• Lee
• Polk
• Volusia
• Duval
• Osceola
• Pasco
• Seminole
• Brevard
• Manatee
• Sarasota
• Lake
• Collier
• St. Lucie
• St. Johns
• Charlotte
• Hernando
• Alachua
• Clay
• Martin
• Highlands
• Indian River
• Walton
• Flagler
• Monroe
• Putnam
• Levy
• DeSoto
• Okeechobee
• Hendry
• Wakulla
• Hardee
• Gilchrist
• Dixie
• Franklin

The latest White House data was released as more than 5,600 new coronavirus cases were released in Florida Tuesday, according to the state COVID-19 dashboard. This brings the total number of cases reported in the state since the start of the pandemic last spring to nearly 2.18 million. There have been more than 34,500 resident deaths from the virus and more than 88,500 hospitalizations.