State adds 802 new COVID-19 cases and 46 deaths, with the majority in South Florida
Florida’s Department of Health on Saturday morning confirmed 802 additional cases of COVID-19 — more than twice the number of cases reported Friday morning. The state now has a total of 40,001 confirmed cases.
But fewer new deaths were reported Saturday than on Friday. On Saturday, 46 new deaths were reported. On Friday, 69 were announced.
The statewide death toll is currently 1,715.
HOW MANY CONFIRMED COVID-19 CASES ARE IN SOUTH FLORIDA?
Though fewer than half of the new cases were in South Florida, the majority of the new deaths— 31 out of the statewide 46 — occurred here.
▪ Miami-Dade County saw 177 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 14 new deaths. The county’s known case total is now at 13,841 with a median age of 49. The death toll is at 482, the highest in the state.
▪ Broward County reported 92 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and nine new deaths. The county’s confirmed total is now at 5,780 with a median age of 50. The death toll is at 257.
▪ Palm Beach County saw 183 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and eight new deaths. The county’s known total is now at 3,798 with a median age of 53. The death toll is at 237.
▪ Monroe County saw nine additional confirmed cases of COVID-19. The Florida Keys have had a total of 89 known cases with a median age of 52. The number of deaths has held steady at three.
The number of deaths being reported by the Florida Department of Health does not match the state’s Medical Examiners Commission official death count. The health department’s overall count is higher, a discrepancy that has left the commission’s chairman questioning the validity of the department’s data.
In April, the death count released by the Medical Examiner’s Commission was about 10% higher than the totals released by the Florida Department of Health.
More than half of the state’s known COVID-19 cases are in South Florida’s four counties: Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe. Miami-Dade continues to lead the state with the most confirmed cases and deaths. It has 13,841 known COVID-19 cases and 482 deaths. Despite those numbers, plans are underway to reopen some businesses on May 18.
On Wednesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis and Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez indicated during a news conference at Hard Rock Stadium’s COVID-19 testing site in Miami Gardens that South Florida’s restaurants and retailers will begin to reopen soon, a move that has city leaders divided.
At the same time, emergency room and urgent care center visits across South Florida have dropped off sharply as patients fear catching the novel coronavirus — a factor in the rise of at-home deaths and medical complications, doctors say.
“We encourage people not to ignore symptoms,” said Steven Sonenreich, president and chief executive officer of Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach. “Better to be safe than sorry and to use the emergency department. There’s this journey we are on now and restoring people’s confidence that our hospital and going to doctors’ offices is safe.”
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. While some provide updates daily, others do not.
COVID-19 TESTING IN FLORIDA
Testing in Florida has grown steadily since the COVID-19 crisis began, with a steady decline in the percentage of people testing positive. Still, 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’ progression and plays a role in deciding whether it is safe to lift stay-at-home orders and loosen restrictions.
Based on the Miami Herald’s analysis, the state is significantly behind the amount of tests experts recommend is needed to safely reopen restaurants, movie theaters and other businesses.
The recommended numbers of daily tests needed varies by experts, but the dean of the University of South Florida’s College of Medicine told the governor Florida needs to test about 33,000 people every day.
On Saturday, 34,837 new tests were reported as compared to Friday’s figures. In total, 528,413 tests have been conducted. Of those, 40,001 were positive, or 7.6%. The state says there are 1,452 pending tests and 682 were inconclusive.
But health experts told the Miami Herald last month they were concerned the number of pending COVID-19 tests listed by the state is being undercounted 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.
This story was originally published May 9, 2020 at 12:07 PM.
