Florida coronavirus cases hit 66,000. Nearly 20,000 of those cases are in Miami-Dade
Florida’s Department of Health on Tuesday morning confirmed 1,096 additional cases of COVID-19, bringing the state’s total to hit 66,000 confirmed cases. There were also 53 new deaths announced, raising the statewide toll to 2,765.
Tuesday’s daily total is higher than Monday, when 966 additional cases were confirmed, ending a five-day trend of daily totals surpassing 1,000.
Confirmed COVID-19 cases in South Florida
Less than half of the new cases and nearly half of the new deaths were in South Florida:
▪ Miami-Dade County reported 224 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and seven new deaths, bringing the county’s total count closer to 20,000. The county has now had a total of 19,980 confirmed cases and 774 deaths, the highest in the state.
▪ Broward County reported 111 additional confirmed cases and three new deaths. The county’s confirmed total is now at 8,035 with 346 deaths.
▪ Palm Beach County saw 189 additional confirmed cases and 15 new deaths. The county’s known total is now at 7,518 with 388 deaths.
▪ Monroe County did not report any additional cases and had 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 19,980 known cases and 774 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 does not “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, 177 hospitalizations were added, raising the statewide total count to 11,185.
While Florida’s Department of Health is not releasing current statewide hospitalization data to the public, 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.
As of Monday, 36 people were discharged and 48 people were admitted to Miami-Dade hospitals, bringing the number of hospitalizations for COVID-19 complications to 591, 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. Tuesday’s testing data was not immediately available.
However, unlike hospitalization data that can give researchers a real-time visual on how the novel coronavirus is impacting the community, testing might be limited or take days to report 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. This is because Florida’s Health Department only announces the number of pending 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 pending 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 as the turnaround time varies by lab.
This story was originally published June 9, 2020 at 12:32 PM.
