Florida’s COVID-19 cases top 250,000 with 10,360 new cases and 95 new deaths reported
Florida’s Department of Health on Friday confirmed 10,360 new cases of COVID-19, making it the third-highest single-day total recorded since the pandemic began in March.
The highest 24-hour total recorded in the state was reported on July 4, with 11,458 new cases. Friday had 11,433, the second-highest single-day total.
Florida now has 254,511 confirmed cases. There were also 95 new deaths announced, raising the statewide death toll to 4,197.
Confirmed COVID-19 cases in Florida
▪ Miami-Dade County reported 2,527 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 14 new deaths. The county now has 60,868 confirmed cases and 1,132 deaths, the highest in the state.
▪ Broward County reported 1,548additional confirmed cases of the disease and 17new deaths. The county now has 28,253 known cases and 455 deaths.
▪ Palm Beach County saw 614 additional confirmed cases and eight new deaths. The county now has 19,847 confirmed cases and 594 deaths.
▪ Monroe County reported 74 additional cases of the disease and no new deaths. The Florida Keys now have 544 confirmed cases and six deaths.
Here’s a breakdown on what you need to know:
Confirmed COVID-19 cases in Florida
One of the tools that officials are relying on to determine whether the 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 snapshot of how many people are severely ill with COVID-19.
Florida’s COVID-19 Data and Surveillance dashboard does not reflect the number of people currently hospitalized and only provides the total number of hospitalizations in its statewide and county-level data. On Saturday, 421 hospitalizations were added, bringing the statewide total to 18,023.
Last week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office confirmed to the Miami Herald that the state would start reporting current hospitalization numbers for all counties. And on Friday, the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration confirmed to the Miami Herald that a new column it added to its own dashboard, which is different from the state’s Data and Surveillance dashboard, includes statewide data for current hospitalizations.
As of Saturday, Florida currently has 7,238 COVID-19 patients admitted into hospitals — a rise of 454 from Friday.
The newly available data comes following a surge of cases in recent weeks and as public health experts and the nonprofit COVID Tracking Project, a volunteer group that has become the most prolific coronavirus data collector in the country, pressure the state to start reporting current hospitalizations, saying the information is a clearer way of assessing how bad the pandemic is getting.
Last week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office confirmed to the Miami Herald that the state would start reporting current hospitalization numbers for all counties.
The change comes following a surge of cases in recent weeks and as public health experts and the nonprofit COVID Tracking Project, a volunteer group that has become the most prolific coronavirus data collector in the country, pressure the state to start reporting current hospitalizations, saying the information is a clearer way of assessing how bad the pandemic is getting.
The governor’s office told the Miami Herald earlier this week it still planned to publicly report the data, but would not specify a timeline.
Hospitals in Miami-Dade have been self-reporting a number of key metrics, including hospitalizations, to the county, which has made this data public for several months.
On Friday, Miami-Dade hospitalizations for COVID-19 complications rose to 1,779, according to Miami-Dade County’s “New Normal” dashboard. According to Thursday’s data, 166 people were discharged and 205 people were admitted.
Baptist Health, of the largest hospital systems in South Florida, told the Miami Herald Thursday its facilities were nearing capacity with the pace of new patient admissions testing the healthcare system’s limits even after administrators recently postponed non-emergency surgeries.
Florida’s recent surge in cases has also begun to produce an uptick in deaths, with the state health department announcing that a record 120 people died from COVID-19 on Thursday. Even before that high water mark, the trend of daily deaths reported by the state had begun to rise at a rate not seen since early May, when South Florida was still under lockdown.
Health experts say the lag time of confirming and announcing a COVID-19 related death makes it a difficult metric to analyze. But the rolling averages — considered by many public health experts as the best way to look at the information — have started to go back up after weeks of rising hospitalizations, which are a “leading indicator,” or an early warning of increased spread.
COVID-19 testing in Florida
Testing in Florida has seen steady growth since the COVID-19 crisis began.
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.
On Saturday, Florida’s Department of Health reported 87,065 tests new tests on Friday. The positive rate was 15.3% of the total, according to the report.
To date, 2,477,810 people have been tested in Florida. Of the total tested, 254,511 (about 10.3%) have tested positive. The state says there are 1,911 tests with pending results.
The state began adding antigen test results to Florida’s case totals last week. Antigen tests are a new category of tests that detect fragments of proteins found in the virus by testing samples collected by nose swabs. The FDA authorized the first antigen COVID-19 tests in May.
This story was originally published July 11, 2020 at 11:48 AM with the headline "Florida’s COVID-19 cases top 250,000 with 10,360 new cases and 95 new deaths reported."
