Florida set the record for most new reported coronavirus deaths 276, beating the former mark by 19, as cases increased by 5,831, the 17th day in a row they have remainder under 10,000, the Florida Department of Health announced Tuesday.
Total daily tests still remained substantially under 100,000 at 66,962, among the lowest in two weeks, and the positive rate of daily tests spiked to 14.70 from 12.26 the day before when there were 58,153 tests. The two-week low was 11.67 last Wednesday.
The positivity rate for first-time cases increased to 10.30 from 8.58, nearly lowest in two weeks and under the 10.0 percent target. The high was 12.03 on July 39.
Florida is in sixth place in the United States ahead of Illinois with 8,553 deaths of residents and 8,385 including nonresidents, which rose by 1 to 132. Illinois has 7,846, including 1 more Monday.
Florida's deaths have hit triple digits all within the past few weeks.
State and county increases represent fatalities received by the state Monday and not the number of fatalities that occurred then. The day someone dies and when it is received by the state can lag for several days. So far, the most deaths occurred on July 16 with 165.
In the state report Monday, 277 new deaths were added since the previous report and 1 was removed because they were not determined to be caused by coronavirus for a net change of 276.
Click here for more on the state's coronavirus cases.
