Florida coronavirus cases surge to nearly 42,000 as Miami-Dade death toll passes 500
Florida’s Department of Health on Tuesday morning confirmed 941 additional cases of COVID-19, bringing the state total of confirmed cases to nearly 42,000. The statewide total of known cases is now at 41,923.
Tuesday’s daily total of confirmed cases is more than double the amount reported Monday and is the highest the state has seen since since May 1, when cases surpassed 1,000.
There were also 44 new deaths announced, raising the statewide death toll to 1,779.
HOW MANY CONFIRMED COVID-19 CASES ARE IN SOUTH FLORIDA?
More than half of the new cases and half of the new deaths were in South Florida:
▪ Miami-Dade County announced 15 new deaths, pushing its death toll past the 500 mark to 505, the highest in the state. It also confirmed 218 additional cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of known cases to 14,385.
▪ Broward County reported 91 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and no new deaths. The county’s confirmed total is now at 5,973 with 258 deaths.
▪ Palm Beach County saw 204 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and seven new deaths. The county’s known total is now at 4,093. The death toll is at 245.
▪ Monroe County confirmed three additional cases of the disease and no new deaths. The Florida Keys now have 95 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 14,385 known cases and 505 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 and others don’t.
Based on Monday’s county hospitalization report, the number of new COVID-19 patients admitted to the hospital in the past two days has begun to outpace discharges, with the inpatient volume climbing back up toward the level it has been at since early April.
While the state has expanded its COVID-19 testing capabilities and availability, this does not explain the recent hospitalization increase.
And 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.
COVID-19 TESTING IN FLORIDA
Testing in Florida has seen a steady growth since the COVID-19 crisis began and has begun to see a steady decline in the percentage of people testing positive.
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.
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.
Florida reached the recommended mark for the first time on May 2 and has since seen its daily testing numbers either surpass or be below the mark by several thousand.
On Monday, it surpassed the mark with 33,328 new tests reported. In total, 561,741 tests have been conducted. Of those, 40,982 were positive, or 7.30 percent. The state says there are 1,080 pending tests. Tuesday’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.
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.
Miami Herald staff writer Ben Conarck contributed to this report.
This story was originally published May 12, 2020 at 11:45 AM.
