Florida coronavirus cases hit 42,402 as the death toll surpasses 1,800
Florida’s Department of Health on Wednesday morning confirmed 479 additional cases of COVID-19, bringing the state total of confirmed cases to 42,402. There were also 48 new deaths announced, raising the statewide death toll to 1,827.
Wednesday’s daily total of newly confirmed cases is lower than Tuesday, when 941 additional cases of COVID-19 were reported, the highest the state had seen since May 1, when cases surpassed 1,000.
HOW MANY CONFIRMED COVID-19 CASES ARE IN SOUTH FLORIDA?
Less than half of the new cases and more than half of the new deaths were in South Florida:
▪ Miami-Dade County reported 83 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 13 new deaths. The county’s known total is now at 14,468 with 518 deaths, the highest in the state.
▪ Broward County reported 25 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and nine new deaths. The county’s confirmed total is now at 5,998 with 267 deaths.
▪ Palm Beach County saw 83 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and nine new deaths. The county’s known total is now at 4,176. The death toll is at 254.
▪ Monroe County confirmed one additional case of the disease and no new deaths. The Florida Keys now have 96 known cases and three deaths.
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 14,468 known cases and 518 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.
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 Tuesday, it surpassed the mark with 40,686 new tests, the highest reported in a single day since the pandemic began. In total, 580,316 tests have been conducted. Of those, 41,923 were positive, or 7.22 percent. The state says there are 1,064 pending tests.
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 13, 2020 at 11:33 AM.
