Three more Manatee County residents dead from COVID-19, health department says
Three Manatee County residents were among the 149 new deaths from COVID-19 confirmed by Florida Department of Health on Thursday.
Since the pandemic hit, there have been 265 deaths in Manatee County caused by COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus, according to FDOH’s data.
One death previously confirmed to have been caused by COVID-19 has since been removed from the data. Deaths are sometimes removed by FDOH with little explanation other than to denote on the case line data report that “COVID-related death in a Florida resident was ruled out.”
The FDOH did not immediately respond to questions regarding the removed death, but previously has declined to comment in similar situations.
The latest local deaths were a 42-year-old man and two 93-year-old men. None of them lived or worked at a long-term care facility, according to FDOH’s data.
Statewide, there have 11,650 residents and 150 non-residents who have been killed by COVID-19.
The health department also reported 3,511 new infections statewide. Since March, there have been a total of 637,013 people who have contracted the disease, according to health department.
In Manatee County, there were 25 new infections reported in the latest data. A total of 10,557 people in the county have tested positive since the pandemic hit in March.
Data released Thursday morning included 265 new tests results locally with a positivity rate of 9.4%.
There was a slight uptick in hospitalizations on Thursday, with 24 patients admitted to one of the county’s three general hospitals with COVID-19 as a primary reason for admission, according to the Florida Agency for Healthcare Administration.
Between Manatee Memorial Hospital, Blake Medical Center and Lakewood Ranch Medical Center, there were 81 available beds including eight ICU beds, according to the data collected by AHCA. That data does not account for how many beds are actually staffed in the hospitals.
Surrounding counties:
- Sarasota County: Cases increased from 7,281 to 7,305. The official death toll rose from 211 to 212.
- DeSoto County: Cases increased from 1,501 to 1,503. The official death toll remained at 22.
- Hardee County: Cases increased from 1,108 to 1,121. The official death toll remained at nine.
- Hillsborough County: Cases increased from 37,668 to 37,821. The official death toll rose from 554 to 558.
- Pinellas County: Cases increased from 20,080 to 20,177. The official death toll rose from 665 to 669.
This story was originally published September 3, 2020 at 11:07 AM.
