Florida coronavirus cases top 1,000 for fifth day in a row as testing steadily increases
Florida’s Department of Health on Sunday morning confirmed 1,180 additional cases of COVID-19, bringing the state’s total closer to 64,000 known cases. The state now has a total of 63,938 confirmed cases.
This is the fifth day this week that the state’s daily total of newly confirmed cases surpassed 1,000, though it is the lowest total seen since the state reported 617 additional cases on Tuesday.
On Thursday, the state recorded 1,413 additional cases, the highest daily count since Florida’s Department of Health began providing daily updates on the novel coronavirus in March.
While the state did see its biggest daily gain in six weeks these past few days, the percentage of positive COVID-19 tests out of those reported in a single day has seen a decline over the same time period. While the state has seen an increase of testing, it might not be the only reason for this week’s daily totals.
Dr. Aileen Marty, an infectious disease specialist at FIU, told Local 10 that the rising numbers of cases is not surprising because people, she says, are becoming more careless with social distancing as the state reopens.
“We’re going to continue to see increases in cases as people continue to not follow the standard things that we have to follow to avoid transmitting the virus,” Marty told Local 10 Sunday. “We’re no longer in lockdown. We’ve opened up our community. And it’s been about five days since the protests began.”
There were also 12 new deaths announced Sunday, raising the statewide toll to 2,700.
How many confirmed COVID-19 cases are in South Florida?
More than half of the new deaths but less than half of the new cases were in South Florida:
▪ Miami-Dade County reported 248 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and no new deaths. The county now has a total of 19,547 confirmed cases and 765 deaths, the highest in the state.
▪ Broward County reported 114 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and five new deaths. The county’s confirmed total is now at 7,804 with 339 deaths.
▪ Palm Beach County saw 156 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and two new deaths. The county’s known total is now at 7,230 with 372 deaths.
▪ Monroe County reported one additional case of COVID-19 and no new deaths. The Florida Keys now have 111 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 19,547 known cases and 765 deaths.
One of the tools officials are relying on to determine if the novel coronavirus is improving in the state is 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 Sunday, 51 hospitalizations were added, raising the statewide total count to 10,942.
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, 50 people were discharged and 56 people were admitted to Miami-Dade hospitals, bringing the total number of hospitalizations for COVID-19 complications to 590, 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, a key indicator experts rely on to determine whether the pandemic is improving or worsening.
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 41,999 new tests in Sunday’s daily COVID-19 update. In total, the state has done 1,217,105 tests. Of the total tested, 63,938 or about 5.25 percent have tested positive for the disease. The state says there are 1,161 pending tests.
Health experts have previously told the Miami Herald that 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 June 7, 2020 at 12:40 PM with the headline "Florida coronavirus cases top 1,000 for fifth day in a row as testing steadily increases."
