Florida tops 17,000 COVID-19 deaths and adds 4,651 new cases

The total of pandemic deaths in Florida surpassed 17,000 on Monday as the state reported another 46 fatalities related to COVID-19.

Florida also reported another day of 4,000-plus COVID-19 cases, the seventh in the past 10 days.

On Monday, Florida added another 4,651 coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 812,063 since the pandemic began in March.

Overall, 17,043 people have died from COVID-19, including 209 non-residents who died in Florida.

Most of the 45 deaths reported Monday happened in recent weeks but were just confirmed in the past day.

Florida had firmly closed out October with a steady rise of coronavirus cases,

With cases spiking across the nation, the country’s leading infectious diseases expert warned the U.S. will face a rising death toll and “a whole lot of hurt” in the coming weeks.

We need to make an “abrupt change” in public health precautions nationwide, Dr. Anthony Fauci told The Washington Post in a story published Saturday night. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the U.S. was likely to see 100,000 or more cases a day this winter.

“It’s not a good situation," Fauci said

His comments contradict President Donald Trump’s remarks that the nation is “rounding the turn” on the virus.

The number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. has now totaled nearly 9.3 million, according to Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center. The number of COVID-19 deaths has surpassed 231,000.

More than 46.3 million people have tested positive for COVID-19 across the globe.

On Friday, Florida reported 5,592 new cases of COVID-19 -- the most new cases in one day since Aug. 15, when the state tallied 6,352 cases. Florida reported 7,569 cases on Sept. 1, but much of that spike was due to a backlog of lab results. On Saturday, Oct. 31, the number of new cases dropped to 2,331 but on Sunday, Nov. 1, Florida tallied another 4,865 coronavirus cases.

Health reporter Cindy Goodman can be reached at cgoodman@sunsentinel.com or on Twitter @cindykgoodman

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