Florida coronavirus cases run past 52,600, and 60 new deaths push toll to more than 2,300
Florida’s Department of Health confirmed 379 additional cases of COVID-19, bringing the state total of known cases to 52,634. Sixty new deaths were announced, raising the statewide toll to 2,319.
Wednesday’s daily total of newly confirmed cases is lower than Tuesday, which recorded 509 new cases. But the death toll is the highest the state has reported since May 8, when 69 deaths were announced.
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 57 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 22 new deaths. The county’s confirmed total is now at 17,225 cases with 655 deaths, the highest in the state.
▪ Broward County reported 26 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and five new deaths. The county’s confirmed total is now at 6,825 with 305 deaths.
▪ Palm Beach County saw 26 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and five new deaths. The county’s known total is now at 5,455 with 320 deaths.
▪ Monroe County did not see any additional cases of the disease and no new deaths. The Florida Keys now have 107 known cases and four 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 17,225 known cases and 655 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.
On Wednesday morning, 157 hospitalizations were added, raising the statewide total count to 9,639. 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.
As of Tuesday, Miami-Dade says it has a total of 644 people hospitalized for COVID-19 related complications.
Scientists are also still working to learn more about the virus, including how many people in the community are infected with the disease and have mild or no symptoms, which can make it 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 started 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 vary 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’s Department of Health reported 14,992 new tests in Tuesday’s daily COVID-19 update. In total, the state has done 924,920 tests. Of the total tested, 52,255 or 5.65 percent have tested positive for the disease. The state says there are 901 pending tests. Wednesday’s testing data was 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 has 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 27, 2020 at 12:12 PM.
