FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. _ It's been six months since Florida began reporting the deaths of people from the coronavirus pandemic.
The list started with 17 deaths on March 23. The official numbers now: 13,618 Floridians who have died from COVID-19, plus another 164 nonresidents who died from the disease in the state.
The Florida Department of Health on Wednesday reported the virus deaths of 203 more residents, the most on any daily report for almost two weeks.
Florida's COVID-19 death rate is the same as Pennsylvania's, at 15th in the nation, with 62 deaths per 100,000 people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Overall the state ranks fifth for COVID-19 fatalities in the U.S., behind New York, New Jersey, California and Texas. Florida is the third-most populous state in the nation, after California and Texas.
On Wednesday, Florida also reported an additional 2,590 people in the state had tested positive for COVID-19. That's just a slight increase over the 2,470 new cases the day before.
The state experienced its highest number of new daily cases in July, with disease-related deaths reaching their highest daily counts in August.
TESTING
More than 5.16 million people have been tested for COVID-19 in Florida since the pandemic began, producing an overall positivity rate of 13.37%, state data show. At least 690,499 people have tested positive and 4.46 million people have tested negative.
Health officials on Wednesday reported the COVID-19 testing positivity rate for Florida was above the desired 5% level for the second straight day. It had been below 5% for 10 consecutive days before that, even dipping to 3.85% on Sept. 13, the lowest in three months.
Public health experts say that means the virus is under control. The World Health Organization has advised governments that before reopening, the rate should remain at 5% or lower for at least 14 days.
The latest state report shows the daily positivity rate at 5.3%, down from 5.85% the previous day. This figure reflects only new infections based on COVID-19 testing for the day; it does not count people who previously tested positive for the disease.
Wednesday's data report shows test results for 54,483 Florida residents, up from 44,908 results reported the previous day, and 43,192 results two days ago. These results include retests of people who were previously diagnosed.
HOSPITALIZATIONS
As of noon Wednesday, 2,256 people across the state were hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19. The number is down 63 from Tuesday.
The online report from the state Agency for Health Care Administration updates several times throughout the day. Hospitalizations have been going down since hitting a peak in late July.
Since the pandemic began, a total of 42,941 state residents have been hospitalized for the disease in Florida, according to the Department of Health.
NATIONAL AND GLOBAL VIEW
U.S.: More than 6.9 million people in the country have been infected with the novel coronavirus, and 201,204 have died, as of about 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, according to Johns Hopkins University's Coronavirus Resource Center.
World: At least 31.6 million people have tested positive for COVID-19, and 972,568 people have died from the disease, says Johns Hopkins. The U.S. has had the most COVID-19 cases and deaths of any country. The U.S. has 4.3% of the world's population, but 21.8% of the world's cases and 20.7% of the world's deaths.
