Manatee County man among latest 89 reported COVID-19 deaths in Florida
A Manatee County man is among the 89 deaths from COVID-19 reported by the Florida Department of Health on Friday.
There have been 255 Manatee residents who have died from COVID-19 since the pandemic hit the county in March. A total of 10,957 Florida residents have died from the deadly respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus.
The health department reported 142 non-residents have died from COVID-19 on Friday, removing one death previously confirmed. Similarly, the health department removed the deaths of two residents from the datat, actually reporting 91 new deaths of residents.
For months the department has refused to comment on specific cases being removed from the data after the death was already certified to have been caused by COVID-19.
The latest local death was that of a 66-year-old Manatee County man, who did not live or work at a long-term care facility, according to the health department.
Statewide, there were also 3,815 new infections reported on Friday. A total of 615,806 have tested positive for the coronavirus since March.
In Manatee County, there were 30 new infections reported. In total, 10,340 people have contracted the coronavirus locally.
Those new cases were among the 525 test results released locally on Friday, with a positivity rate of 5.7%.
To date, there have been 94,669 test results from Manatee County released by the health department. The number of tests does not reflect how many people have been tested. The health department counts every negative test no matter how many times an individual person tests negative but only counts a positive once when a person tests positive.
Therefore, it is unknown what percentage of the population has actually been tested.
Hospitalizations remain lower than they were in recent weeks. As of Friday afternoon, there were 27 patients admitted into one of the county’s three general hospitals with COVID-19 being a primary diagnosis for admission.
Availability of hospital beds also remains improved with 134 beds total available as of Friday afternoon, including 14 ICU beds. Since Manatee Memorial Hospital stopped providing detailed information to county public safety officials, how many available beds that are actually staffed is no longer known publicly.
At the non-congregate sheltering being provided by the county at the Super 8 motel in Ellenton, there was one person on Friday. In total, nine people have used the shelter thanks to funding under the CARES Act.
Surrounding counties:
- Sarasota County: Cases increased from 7,091 to 7,136. The official death toll rose from 198 to 201.
- DeSoto County: Cases increased from 1,460 to 1,468. The official death toll remained at 21 to 22.
- Hardee County: Cases still total 1,083. The official death toll remained at nine.
- Hillsborough County: Cases increased from 36,354 to 36,574. The official death toll rose from 540 to 541.
- Pinellas County: Cases increased from 19,681 to 19,740. The official death toll rose from 641 to 645.
This story was originally published August 28, 2020 at 11:11 AM.
