Florida adds more than 10,000 coronavirus cases as state total climbs past 360,300
Florida’s Department of Health on Monday confirmed 10,347 additional new cases of COVID-19, bringing the state’s total to 360,394 known cases. There were also 90 new Florida resident deaths announced, bringing the statewide resident death toll to 5,072.
Two new non-resident deaths were announced in the state, bringing the non-resident death toll to 111.
COVID-19 cases in South Florida
▪ Miami-Dade County reported 2,797 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and seven new deaths, according to Florida’s Department of Health. The county now has 87,035 confirmed cases and 1,309 deaths.
▪ Broward County reported 1,695 additional confirmed cases of the disease and 19 new deaths. The county now has 40,976 known cases and 512 deaths.
▪ Palm Beach County saw 641 additional confirmed cases and six new deaths. The county now has 26,426 confirmed cases and 685 deaths.
▪ Monroe County reported 35 additional cases of the disease and no new deaths. The Florida Keys now have 894 confirmed cases and six deaths.
Here’s a breakdown on what you need to know:
COVID-19 hospitalizations 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.
Earlier this month, the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration began reporting the number of patients hospitalized statewide with a “primary diagnosis of COVID.” The data, which is updated at least every hour, does not distinguish between the number of COVID-19 patients in hospital intensive care units and those in acute care beds, which require less attention from nurses.
Previously, the state was only providing the total number of hospitalizations in its statewide and county-level data. Miami-Dade was an exception, with hospitals self-reporting a number of key metrics, including hospitalizations, to the county, which has made this data public for several months.
As of 3:30 p.m. Monday, there were 9,489 COVID-19 patients admitted into hospitals throughout the state, according to the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration dashboard.
Of those, 2,052 were in Miami-Dade, 1,266 in Broward, 624 in Palm Beach and 15 in Monroe County, according to the agency.
Florida’s current hospitalization data does not always match the hospitalization data reported in Miami-Dade’s “New Normal” dashboard. Jennifer Moon, deputy mayor of Miami-Dade told the Miami Herald last week that there may be a number of reasons why the county’s hospitalization data differs from the state’s.
She said these reasons include the frequency of daily updates, human error and whether the state’s agency is including in its data the patients who visited the emergency room for other urgent medical needs and tested positive for COVID after they are admitted.
On Monday, Miami-Dade hospitalizations for COVID-19 complications rose to 2,278, according to Miami-Dade County’s “New Normal” dashboard. According to Monday’s data, 145 people were discharged and 180 people were admitted.
The state has had a total of 21,263 Florida residents hospitalized for COVID-19 related complications, according to Florida’s COVID-19 Data and Surveillance Dashboard.
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 Monday, Florida’s Department of Health reported 78,993 new tests on Sunday. The positive rate was 18.15% of the total, according to the report. In total, 3,845,270 tests have been conducted.
To date, 3,055,922 people have been tested in Florida. Of the total tested, 360,394 (about 11.79%) have tested positive. The state says there are 2,391 tests with pending results. Monday’s testing results was not immediately available.
The state began adding antigen test results to Florida’s case totals earlier this month. 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 20, 2020 at 11:07 AM with the headline "Florida adds more than 10,000 coronavirus cases as state total climbs past 360,300."
