State coronavirus cases pass 36,800, and half of new deaths are in South Florida
Florida’s Department of Health on Monday morning confirmed 819 additional cases of COVID-19 as restaurants and shops across the state, except in South Florida, opened their doors to customers for the first time in weeks. The state is now closer to hitting the 37,000 mark, with a total of 36,897 confirmed cases.
Monday’s total daily number is the highest the state has seen since Friday, when a weeklong trend of daily totals under 1,000 was broken. There were also 20 new deaths announced, bringing the statewide death toll to 1,399.
HOW MANY CONFIRMED COVID-19 CASES ARE IN SOUTH FLORIDA?
More than half of the newly confirmed cases and half of the deaths were in South Florida:
▪ Miami-Dade County saw nine new deaths and 317 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19, surpassing the 13,000 mark. The county’s known total of cases is now at 13,092. The death toll is at 378, the highest in the state.
▪ Broward County reported 71 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and one new death. The county’s confirmed total of cases is now at 5,383. The death toll is at 208.
▪ Palm Beach County saw 181 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and no new deaths. The county’s known total of cases is now at 3,311. The death toll remains at 196.
▪ Monroe County did not report any additional confirmed cases of the disease or any new deaths. The Florida Keys remains with a total of 80 known cases and three deaths.
The number of deaths being reported by the state Department of Health may be incomplete. The list of coronavirus deaths being compiled by Florida’s medical examiners has shown the death count was up to 10 percent higher than what the Florida Department of Health has released.
Here’s a breakdown on what you need to know:
CONFIRMED COVID-19 CASES IN FLORIDA
More than half of the known COVID-19 cases are in South Florida’s four counties — Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe. And Miami-Dade continues to lead the state with the most confirmed cases and deaths. It has 13,092 known cases and 378 deaths.
Despite the daily reports of new cases and deaths, local and state officials have previously said that decreases in the daily total of reported cases are signs that social distancing measures are working.
Officials are also relying on hospitalization data. Unlike testing, which might be limited or take days to report results, hospitalizations can help give officials a real-time visual of how many people are severely ill with COVID-19.
The health department says it doesn’t “have a figure” to reflect the number of people currently hospitalized and only provides the total number of hospitalizations in its statewide and county-level data. But hospitals in Miami-Dade are self-reporting a number of key metrics, including hospitalizations, to the county. Some provide updates every day; others don’t.
Hospitalizations in Miami-Dade have leveled off at about 650 to 700 a day for about two weeks. While officials haven’t seen a decline in hospitalizations for a prolonged period yet, they say the stabilization is a good sign.
Because scientists are still working to learn more about the virus, including how many people in the community are actually infected with the disease and have mild or no symptoms, it’s difficult to determine what percentage of the cases hospitalizations represent.
FLORIDA’S ECONOMY IS REOPENING. WHAT ABOUT SOUTH FLORIDA?
Restaurants and shops across the state will be reopening with limited capacity Monday, except in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach, where the pandemic has hit the hardest.
The only county in South Florida allowed to reopen during the first phase of Florida’s reopening plan is Monroe, which has reported less than 100 confirmed cases since the pandemic began. Visitors still won’t be allowed in.
COVID-19 TESTING IN FLORIDA
Testing in Florida has seen a steady growth since the COVID-19 crisis began, but less than 2% of the population has been tested for the disease, according to a Miami Herald analysis.
Testing, like hospitalizations, helps officials determine the virus’ progress and plays a role in deciding whether it is safe to lift stay-at-home orders and loosen restrictions.
And based on the Miami Herald’s analysis, the state has been significantly behind the number of tests experts recommend is needed to safely reopen restaurants, movie theaters and other businesses.
The recommended number of daily tests needed varies by experts, but the dean of the University of South Florida’s College of Medicine recently told the governor that Florida needs to test about 33,000 people every day.
The state reached its recommended mark for the first time Saturday, with 33,597 new tests, but fell several thousands short of it Sunday. As of Sunday, the state has done a total of 428,744 tests. Of those, 36,078, or 8.41 percent, have tested positive. The state says there are 1,226 pending tests. Updated testing data was not immediately available Monday.
But, health experts told the Miami Herald last month they were concerned the number of pending COVID-19 tests listed by the state is an undercount because Florida reports only the number of Floridians waiting to get test results from state labs, not private ones — and private labs are completing more than 90% of state tests.
Previously, it’s taken as long as two weeks for the results of pending tests from private labs to be added into the state’s official count, making it difficult for officials to project the size and scale of the pandemic in the state. It’s unclear how quickly results are currently being sent to the state from private labs.
This story was originally published May 4, 2020 at 11:21 AM.
