ORLANDO, Fla. – Several coronavirus testing sites are closed in South Florida after Tropical Storm Eta dumped up to 23 inches of rain near one of Florida’s busiest testing sites as the state reported 4,353 new infections on Tuesday.
Rain from the aftermath of the storm damaged one of the state’s largest COVID-19 testing sites at Miami-Dade County’s Hard Rock Stadium, officials said. Throughout the pandemic, it has been one of the busiest places for people to get a coronavirus diagnosis. The site was expected to be closed until Wednesday or Thursday. At least seven other state testing sites were to remain closed on Tuesday.
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For the past eight months, the Florida Department of Health COVID-19 dashboard and website have updated around 11 a.m. daily, however, the DOH is now providing those updates in the late afternoon.
On Friday, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings revealed the Department of Health planned to shift the timing of when the department releases daily COVID-19 data to the afternoon. The DOH has not responded to questions about this change.
Cases
The Florida Department of Health reported 4,353 new cases on Tuesday, bringing the state’s overall total to 852,174 cases since March.
Deaths
The Florida Department of Health on Tuesday reported 69 people have recently died from COVID-19. As of Tuesday’s coronavirus report, a total of 17,460 deaths across the state have been related to the coronavirus, a number that includes 212 non-resident deaths in Florida.
State health officials have always maintained that virus fatalities are often delayed in being reported to the FDOH, with some deaths not reported for a month or more.
Hospitalizations
Currently, there are 3,025 people with the virus hospitalized in Florida, according to the state Agency for Health Care Administration.
The state DOH reported 281 new hospitalizations on Tuesday, bringing Florida’s total since the pandemic arrived in March to 50,872 people hospitalized.
Positivity Rate
The percent of positive results ranged from 4.91% to 8.27% over the past two weeks and was 8.34% for tests reported Monday.
[READ YESTERDAY’S REPORT: Florida reports nearly 4,000 new infections as vaccine trials offer glimmer of hope]
Below is a breakdown of cases across the 10-county Central Florida region:
| County | Cases | New cases | Hospitalizations | New hospitalizations | Deaths | New deaths |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brevard | 12,925 | 145 | 1,076 | 17 | 399 | 7 |
| Flagler | 2,311 | 16 | 173 | 0 | 40 | 0 |
| Lake | 9,312 | 66 | 757 | 6 | 238 | 2 |
| Marion | 11,412 | 53 | 1,101 | 7 | 362 | 0 |
| Orange | 49,422 | 393 | 1,646 | 1 | 598 | 6 |
| Osceola | 15,302 | 89 | 870 | 10 | 215 | 4 |
| Polk | 24,440 | 213 | 2,557 | 26 | 642 | 4 |
| Seminole | 11,080 | 76 | 773 | 2 | 253 | 0 |
| Sumter | 3,096 | 9 | 300 | 0 | 88 | 0 |
| Volusia | 13,828 | 80 | 1,003 | 2 | 333 | 2 |