Ten percent of those who have been tested for COVID-19 in Florida are suffering from the potentially deadly virus and they’re most likely to fall between the ages of 45-54.

That’s according to statistics released Sunday morning by the Florida Department of Health. Those numbers show that 19 percent of patients – 4,724 – fall into that age group, with 506 of them requiring hospitalization.

Another 18 percent – 4,443 patients – are between the ages of 55-64 years old. Of those, 654 have required hospital care.

The breakdown of the majority of the remaining patients in the Sunshine State is as follows:

  • 0-4 years old: 113 cases, 6 hospitalizations;
  • 5-14 years old: 223 cases, 5 hospitalizations;
  • 15-24 years old: 1,823 cases, 52 hospitalizations;
  • 25-34 years old: 3,772 cases, 190 hospitalizations;
  • 35-44 years old: 3,886 cases, 349 hospitalizations;
  • 65-74 years old: 3,305 cases, 878 hospitalizations;
  • 75-84 years old: 1,956 cases, 720 hospitalizations;
  • 85-plus years old: 1,012 cases, 406 hospitalizations; and
  • Unknown: 40 cases.

Statistics show that of the 25,996 COVID-19 cases in Florida as of Sunday morning, 12,614 (50 percent) are men, 12,523 (49 percent) are women and 163 (1 percent) are unknown. Of those, 12,286 are white; 3,987 are black; 2,126 are members of other races and 6,901 are listed as unknown race.

Among the 472 tri-county patients who had been identified as of Sunday morning, 52 percent are men and 48 percent are women. Of those, 63 percent are white, 8 percent are black, 15 percent are listed as other and 10 percent fall under the category of unknown. Statistics also show that 68 percent are non-Hispanic, 17 percent are Hispanic and 12 percent are listed as unknown.

As of Sunday morning, a total of 256,698 people had been tested in Florida for COVID-19, with 230,083 coming back negative and 619 listed as inconclusive. Another 1,179 people were awaiting testing, the Florida Department of Health report showed.

It’s unclear how testing that has been conducted by UF Health and The Villages Health at the polo fields in Sumter County falls into the state numbers, as the healthcare organizations are claiming to have checked 3,955 people – 1,855 with symptoms and 2,100 who were asymptomatic. Those numbers apparently don’t include residents who were tested as the polo fields this past Friday, as the numbers on the UF Health COVID-19 webpage haven’t been updated for several days. You can access that webpage by clicking HERE.

Florida Department of Health statistics show that 1,525 Sumter County residents have been tested, which is a significantly different number than the one being reported by UF Health. Also, some of the tests originally used by the out-of-town healthcare provider during the week of March 23 hadn’t yet been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

This past Wednesday, the UF Health COVID-19 webpage said the latest group to be tested would be only those who were showing symptoms – a marked change from the group’s original concentration on asymptomatic patients for research purposes. It also said the tests that would be used had gained approval from the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It’s unclear if and/or when the testing site in The Villages will reopen. On Sunday, the provider’s webpage said scheduling for COVID-19 screenings at the polo fields wasn’t currently available. It encouraged those showing symptoms such as shortness of breath or high fever to seek immediate medical attention with their primary care physician, urgent care center or local emergency room. It also reminded area residents that future testing dates would be announced 24-36 hours in advance only through The Villages Developer-owned newspaper’s mobile app, website, Facebook page and Twitter account.