Florida coronavirus cases surpass 57,000 as death toll hits 2,530
Florida’s Department of Health on Tuesday morning confirmed 617 additional cases of COVID-19, bringing the total of known cases past 57,000.
The state now has a total of 57,447 confirmed cases. There were also 70 new deaths announced, raising the statewide toll to 2,530.
How many confirmed COVID-19 cases are in South Florida?
Less than half of the new cases but more than half of the new deaths were in South Florida:
▪ Miami-Dade County reported 85 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 20 new deaths. The county’s confirmed total is now at 18,224 cases with 722 deaths, the highest in the state.
▪ Broward County reported 52 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and three new deaths. The county’s confirmed total is now at 7,248 with 317 deaths.
▪ Palm Beach County saw 84 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 14 new deaths. The county’s known total is now at 6,219 with 351 deaths.
▪ Monroe County did not report any additional confirmed case of COVID-19 and no new deaths. The Florida Keys now have 109 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 18,224 known cases and 722 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 Tuesday morning, 181 hospitalizations were added, raising the statewide total count to 10,412. 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 Monday, 43 people were discharged and 32 people were admitted to Miami-Dade hospitals, bringing the total number of hospitalizations for COVID-19 complications to 607, according to Miami-Dade County’s “New Normal” dashboard 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 but is typically several thousand under.
Florida’s Department of Health reported 19,053 new tests in Monday’s daily COVID-19 update. In total, the state has done 1,041,318 tests. Of the total tested, 56,830 or 5.46 percent have tested positive for the disease. The state says there are 1,160 pending tests. Tuesday’s testing data was not immediately available.
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.
