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Florida Adds 821 New COVID-19 Cases; Total Exceeds 23,000

Florida Department of Health COVID-19 dashboard
Florida Department of Health
The number of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 in Florida passed 23,000 Thursday.

Florida logged 821 new cases of COVID-19 Thursday. The 6 p.m. report from the Department of Health shows 23,340 people have tested positive.

668 people have died due to the coronavirus in the state; an increase of 54 since Wednesday evening.

Manatee County saw the largest daily increase of new cases in the Tampa Bay area Thursday, with 38. It also has the highest number of people who have died from COVID-19. The county reports 20 dead, including one death added Thursday evening.

Polk County also recorded one death, bringing its total to 11.

No details are available on either the Manatee or Polk County deaths from today, but the morning report gave details on the person in Sarasota who died Wednesday. It was an 89-year-old man  with no history of travel or contact with another person known to have COVID-19.

Tampa Bay area positive tests as of 6 p.m. Thursday, April 16:  

  • Hillsborough: 878 (838 local, 40 non-resident)
  • Pinellas: 530 (489 local, 41 non-resident)
  • Manatee: 309 (307 local, 2 non-resident)
  • Polk: 304 (298 local, 6 non-resident)
  • Sarasota: 260 (245 local, 15 non-Sarasota residents)
  • Pasco:190 (183 local, 7 non-Pasco resident)
  • Hernando: 76 (72 local, 4 non-Hernando resident)

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After more than 40 years learning and helping others understand more about so many aspects of our world and living in it, I still love making connections between national news stories and our community. It's exciting when I can find a thread between a national program or greater premise and what is happening at the local or personal level. This has been true whether I’ve spun the novelty tunes of Raymond Scott or Wilmoth Houdini from a tiny outpost in a Vermont field, or shared the voices of incarcerated women about what it’s like to be behind bars on Mother’s Day with the entire state of New Hampshire.
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