As Florida hits the beach on Memorial Day weekend, state’s coronavirus cases push past 50,000

The number of confirmed cases of the new coronavirus in Florida continued to push past 50,000 as people returned to reopened beaches, restaurants and retailers over Memorial Day weekend.

And over half of the cases — 28,743 — have been confirmed in South Florida, the state reported Sunday.

So far, 2,237 people across Florida have died from COVID-19, which is an increase of four deaths over the past 24 hours and 264 over the last week, according to the Department of Health.

The state data shows there have been 50,867 people who have tested positive. That’s 740 cases more than Saturday, and an increase of 5,279 cases from one week earlier.

Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties have had 1,238 deaths reported as of Sunday, an increase of 123 fatalities from a week ago.

State Health Department reports show the three counties accounted for 28,743 cases as of Saturday, which is an increase of 2,058 cases from a week ago, and 260 over the previous 24 hours.

The three counties, home to 28.9% of Florida’s population, have had 55.4% of the state’s coronavirus deaths and 56.5% of the cases.

Gov. Ron DeSantis said this week that there are plenty of positive signs based on lower percentages of positive COVID-19 tests in the data. He said that in the past week only 3% or fewer of those tested were diagnosed with infections, proving that the partial reopening of the state has not been risky or caused a spike in cases.

“Our positivity rate is very, very low … even though we’ve expanded testing dramatically,” he said, noting a significant number of new cases are coming from long-term care facilities and prisons.

Beachgoers packed the sand Saturday in Palm Beach County, Daytona Beach, Cocoa Beach, Pensacola Beach and elsewhere across the state. Broward County’s beaches are set to start reopening on Tuesday, while the target date in Miami-Dade County is June 1.

With 872,916 people swabbed so far — the state population is 21.5 million — the data shows a total to date of about 5.8% positive statewide and 9.1% in South Florida.

Four weeks ago, on April 25, it was about 9% statewide and 12.6% in South Florida.

Since the pandemic began, 9,381 people have been treated in Florida hospitals, the state reported, an increase of 71 over the last day.

Sunday’s Department of Health data shows the following breakdown:

The percentage of people diagnosed with the disease has been steadily declining in South Florida. As of Sunday, Miami-Dade County had tested 159,519 people, and 10.6% of those tests were positive for COVID-19. That’s above the World Health Organization’s recommended 10% positivity rate, which indicates adequate surveillance. Four weeks ago, 15% of those swabbed were confirmed positive in that county.

In Broward, there have been 92,867 people tested, according to the reports. Of those, 7.2% were positive, a drop from 11% on April 25.

And in Palm Beach County, there have been 63,163 tests, with 8.2% positive. That’s down from 12% about a month ago.

The coronavirus death toll in the United States stood at 97,149 on Sunday morning, including at least than 40,113 victims in the national hot spots of New York and New Jersey. The country has 1.6 million cases.

The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University also reported more than 5.3 million cases worldwide. At least 342,695 people have died.

The United States has 4.3% of the world’s population, 28.3% of the world’s deaths and 30.4% of the world’s cases.