Florida sees 966 coronavirus cases, ending five-day streak of daily totals over 1,000
Florida’s Department of Health on Monday morning confirmed 966 additional cases of COVID-19, the lowest number that the state has seen following a five-day trend of daily totals surpassing 1,000.
The state now has a total of 64,904 confirmed cases. There were also 12 new deaths announced, raising the statewide toll to 2,712.
Monday is also the first day that Miami-Dade County allowed additional businesses to reopen at limited capacity, including gyms, dance studios, fitness centers, tattoo shops, massage parlors and banquet halls. Short-term rentals and dog parks also reopened, but casinos, movie theaters, bowling alleys, and large gathering areas are still closed. Beaches will reopen on Wednesday.
More than half of the new deaths but less than half of the new cases were in South Florida:
▪ Miami-Dade County reported 209 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and two new deaths. The county now has a total of 19,756 confirmed cases and 767 deaths, the highest in the state.
▪ Broward County reported 120 additional confirmed cases and four new deaths. The county’s confirmed total is now at 7,924 with 343 deaths.
▪ Palm Beach County saw 99 additional confirmed cases and one new death. The county’s known total is now at 7,329 with 373 deaths.
▪ Monroe County reported three additional cases and no new deaths. The Florida Keys now has 114 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 19,756 known cases and 767 deaths.
One of the tools that officials are relying on to determine if the novel-coronavirus situation 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 Monday, 66 hospitalizations were added, raising the statewide total count to 11,008.
Statewide current hospitalization data does exist however, but it’s not being shared with the public, according to Miami Herald news partner WLRN.
Hospitals in Miami-Dade are self-reporting a number of key metrics, including hospitalizations, to the county (which has made this data public). Some provide updates every day; others don’t.
Forty-seven people were discharged and 51 people were admitted to Miami-Dade hospitals, bringing the number of hospitalizations for COVID-19 complications to 578 on Sunday, 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 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 that experts rely on to determine whether the pandemic is waning 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 number of daily tests needed varies among experts, but the dean of the University of South Florida’s College of Medicine told the governor that 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 18,408 new tests in Monday’s daily COVID-19 update. In total, the state has performed 1,235,513 tests. Of the total tested, 64,904 (about 5.25%) have tested positive. The state says there are 1,024 tests with pending results.
Health experts have previously told the Miami Herald that they were concerned the number of pending results 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 test results 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 8, 2020 at 1:08 PM.
