ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) - Florida health officials on Wednesday reported 216 new coronavirus deaths in one day, eclipsing a record set just a day ago.
The state continues to be one of the epicenters of the coronavirusoutbreak, although hospitalizations for the disease were down slightly Wednesday.
The number of new confirmed cases in Florida stood at 9,446, and the death toll had risen to 6,333 as of Wednesday, the state Health Department reported on its website.
The new numbers raised the average number of deaths reported daily to 142 over the past week. That's second only to Texas overall, and to Arizona in per-capita deaths. The highest number of daily deaths reported in the U.S. during the pandemic has been 760, in New York at the height of its outbreak in mid-April.
One promising sign in Florida is a decline in the number of people treated in hospitals for COVID-19: 8,727 patients Wednesday morning compared to a high of about 9,500 last week.