Coronavirus: Florida sees highest daily Covid death toll record with over half a million cases total

The number of new cases and rate of positive tests results have been trending downward for the past two weeks

Florida has recorded its highest single-day number of coronavirus-related deaths, with 276 reported by local health officials, and a total of 542,792 cases throughout the state.

The record number brings the state's total death toll to 8,685 since the pandemic began. The previous record of daily Covid-19 deaths in Florida was 257 on 31 July.

Data from the Florida Department of Health released on Tuesday morning reflected the number of deaths confirmed on Monday, though they may have died previously days or weeks earlier.

There were also 5,886 new cases reported from 57,120 tests, a positive rate of 10.30 per cent. That remains below the peak number of new cases reported in a single day of 15,300 on 12 July, with the daily total trending downward over the past two weeks.

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The record daily death count for Florida comes after Donald Trump said he expected to see a decline in the state “very soon”.

“The rate of positive cases in Florida has now declined. It’s declining. And hospitalisations are declining in most places, and pretty steadily. And we think there’s going to be a big decline starting very soon,” Mr Trump said during a visit to Florida on 31 July.

“We remain concerned about Florida, about Miami, and in a certain area of Miami in particular,” he continued.

Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Hillsborough counties are the most affected in the state, which has remained one of the country’s coronavirus epicentres.

Nationwide, the United States has recorded 163,681 deaths from a total of 5,102,837 cases, according to the latest data from the John Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre.