Florida coronavirus cases near 41,000 and death toll hits 1,735
Florida is inching closer to 41,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases as barbershops, hair and nail salons across the state began to reopen their doors Monday.
Florida’s Department of Health confirmed 386 additional cases of COVID-19 Monday morning, bringing the statewide total of known cases up to 40,982. There were also 14 new deaths announced, raising the statewide death toll to 1,735.
HOW MANY CONFIRMED COVID-19 CASES ARE IN SOUTH FLORIDA?
More than half of the new cases and less than half of the new deaths were in South Florida:
▪ Miami-Dade County saw 160 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and three new deaths. The county’s known case total is now at 14,167. The death toll is at 490, the highest in the state.
▪ Broward County reported 24 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and one new death. The county’s confirmed total is now at 5,882. The death toll is at 258.
▪ Palm Beach County saw 19 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and one new death. The county’s known total is now at 3,889. The death toll is at 238.
▪ Monroe County confirmed four additional cases of the disease and no new deaths. The Florida Keys now has a total of 92 known cases and three deaths.
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.
Previously, the death counts released by the Medical Examiners Commission last month was up to 10 percent higher than the totals released by the Florida Department of Health.
Here’s a breakdown on what you need to know:
CONFIRMED COVID-19 CASES IN FLORIDA
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 14,167 known cases and 490 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.
While officials haven’t seen a decline in hospitalizations for a prolonged period yet, they say the stabilization is a good sign.
But 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 is reopening. What about South Florida
Monday’s limited reopening of barbershops and salons excludes Miami-Dade and Broward County, the two county’s struck the hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Besides barbershops and salons, Palm Beach County will also be reopening restaurants and retailers Monday after Gov. Ron DeSantis approved the county’s request to enter “Phase 1” of Florida’s Reopening plan.
Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez is planning to allow select businesses, including restaurants, to reopen with limited capacity on May 18.
COVID-19 TESTING IN FLORIDA
Testing in Florida has seen a steady growth since the COVID-19 crisis began — with a steady decline in the percentage of people testing positive — 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 is significantly behind the number 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.
The state reached its recommended mark for the first time last week and has since seen its daily testing numbers either surpass or be below the mark by several thousands.
On Sunday, it missed the mark with 25,613 new tests reported. In total, 539,630 tests have been conducted. Of those, 40,596 were positive, or 7.52 percent. The state says there are 1,265 pending tests. Monday’s testing numbers were not immediately available.
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.
This story was originally published May 11, 2020 at 11:31 AM.
