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Florida reports 9,488 new cases, 67 more deaths in battle with coronavirus

Of the more than 67,000 test results returned on July 2 in Florida, nearly 15 percent were positive. That means nearly 15 in every 100 people tested were infected.

Friday's report from the Florida Department of Health showed the state added another 9,488 newly-confirmed cases of COVID-19 for July 2

That's down slightly from the previous day's record of 10,109 new cases but still the third-highest single-day number of confirmed cases to date.

Based on the July 2 data, the state said another 67 Florida residents had died from coronavirus.

July 2 marked the 10th straight day where the number of newly reported coronavirus cases was more than 5,000.

The health department said 67,091 test results were turned in July 2 with a percent positive rate of 14.91 percent.

Though health experts have repeatedly said that a 5 percent positivity rate or lower is recommended to begin reopening, Florida has seen about a week of percentages of more than double that.

And, the latest daily report is nearly triple that amount. The state has been in Phase Two of reopening for nearly a month.

Credit: 10 Tampa Bay

RELATED: Florida COVID-19 cases, deaths, hospitalizations, ICU capacity and recoveries

Here's a breakdown of the new coronavirus cases reported to the state by day:

  • June 21: 2,926 
  • June 22: 3,286
  • June 23: 5,508
  • June 24: 5,004
  • June 25: 8,942
  • June 26: 9,585
  • June 27: 8,530
  • June 28: 5,266
  • June 29: 6,093
  • June 30: 6,563
  • July 1: 10,109
  • July 2: 9,488
Credit: 10 Tampa Bay

We should note that if you look at the state's dashboard for new coronavirus cases, some of the numbers look different than ours -- at least for daily new cases. That's because the state is only tracking Florida residents, not total cases in Florida, on its dashboard. It only tracks the latter within its daily report. And, the chart on the state's website is regularly being revised to say a case happened on one day instead of another. For consistency, we've decided to track total cases reported each day. Those totals don't change, so it's our most consistent way of measuring trends, even if the state moves data around on its dashboard. For transparency's take, here's a direct link to the state's data if you'd like to examine Florida's numbers for yourself.

Hospitalizations

It is difficult to track precisely how many people are hospitalized with COVID-19 at any given point in Florida. Since the pandemic began, the state confirms a total of 15,491 residents have been hospitalized. But, that count includes anyone who was hospitalized at any point during their illness. It does not reflect the number of people currently in the hospital.

The Agency for Healthcare Administration (AHCA) does update hospital bed and ICU availability by county.

Some counties have taken steps to illustrate that information. For example, Pinellas County offers a daily look at coronavirus hospitalizations in the area.

Between adult and pediatric beds, Pinellas County has about 370 ICU beds total. As of Friday morning, 21.6 percent of those were filled with COVID-19 patients. The majority of them, about 67.3 percent, were filled with patients who do not have coronavirus. A little more than 11 percent of ICU beds were available.

Still, the concern with COVID-19 is that having any number of cases puts a strain on the healthcare system. While most counties don't say exactly how many of their full beds are being occupied by coronavirus patients at a given moment, we can use total ICU bed occupancy as an indicator of how full hospitals are right now.

To that end, as of Friday morning in Florida, 20.39 percent of the state's 6,127 adult ICU beds were available compared with 33.22 percent of the state's 581 total pediatric ICU beds. That's according to the state's Agency for Health Care Administration.

We've chosen to focus on adult ICU beds in the list below because not every county offers complete data on pediatric ICU capacity. However, as we've reported, a growing number of children in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties have tested positive for COVID-19.

In total, based on the data below, only 188 of the Tampa Bay area's 1,351 adult ICU beds were open, as of Friday morning. That means only about 14 percent are available.

Around the Tampa Bay area, here is the breakdown:

Citrus: 3 of 39 adult ICU beds available

DeSoto: 0 of 8 adult ICU beds available

Hardee: No data

Hernando: 11 of 65 adult ICU beds available

Highlands: 14 of 33 adult ICU beds available

Hillsborough: 34 of 423 adult ICU beds available

Manatee: 32 of 88 adult ICU beds available

Pasco: 29 of 133 adult ICU beds available

Pinellas: 26 of 305 adult ICU beds available

Polk: 9 of 145 adult ICU beds available

Sarasota: 30 of 112 adult ICU beds available

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