Florida sees more than 925 new coronavirus cases as Miami-Dade’s death toll hits 700
Florida’s Department of Health on Saturday morning confirmed 927 additional cases of COVID-19, bringing the state total of known cases to 55,424. There were also 34 new deaths announced, raising the statewide toll to 2,447.
Saturday’s increase in cases follows Friday’s 1,212 new cases, which was the largest daily increase since April 17.
Confirmed COVID-19 cases in South Florida
Fewer than half of the new cases but more than half of the new deaths were in South Florida:
▪ Miami-Dade County reported 185 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 15 new deaths. The county’s confirmed total is now at 17,826 cases with 700 deaths, the highest in the state.
▪ Broward County reported 92 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and five new deaths. The county’s confirmed total is now at 7,067 with 313 deaths.
▪ Palm Beach County reported 133 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and two new deaths. The county’s known total is now at 5,898 with 337 deaths.
▪ Monroe County reported no new confirmed case of COVID-19 or any new deaths. The Florida Keys has 108 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 17,826 known cases and 700 deaths.
In addition to Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach, the 34 additional deaths were reported in Duval, Hillsborough, Indian River, Lee, Levy, Manatee, Marion and Volusia counties, the health department said.
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 Saturday morning, 131 hospitalizations were added, raising the statewide total count to 10,113. 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 Saturday, Miami-Dade had 2,909 COVID-19 patients currently admitted to hospitals (plus 30 non-residents), an increase of 34 patients, according to county data.
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 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. The state has hit or surpassed the recommended mark a few times this month but is typically several thousand under.
Florida’s Department of Health reported 11,726 new tests in Saturday’s daily COVID-19 update. In total, the state has done 995,886 tests. Of the total tested, 55,424 or 5.6% have tested positive for the disease.
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.
Antibody testing data
For the first time since the pandemic began, health officials released antibody testing data from commercial laboratories on Friday.
In total, 123,552 tests for antibodies have been conducted and of those 5,474, or 4.4%, were positive, and 118,053 were negative.
Miami-Dade County had the most residents undergo antibody testing, with 21,402 tests conducted. Palm Beach was second with 19,571 tests and Broward was third with 14,402 tests. Monroe in the Florida Keys has done 1,241 tests.
Miami Herald staff writer Daniel Chang contributed to this report.
Howard Cohen: 305-376-3619, @HowardCohen
This story was originally published May 30, 2020 at 1:12 PM with the headline "Florida sees more than 925 new coronavirus cases as Miami-Dade’s death toll hits 700."
