Florida sees 253 coronavirus deaths, breaking a record for the third day in a row
Florida’s Department of Health on Thursday confirmed 9,956 additional cases of COVID-19, bringing the state’s known total to 461,379. There were also 253 Florida resident deaths announced, breaking a fatality record for the third day in a row.
The statewide resident death toll is now at 6,586.
The 253 deaths mark the highest single-day Florida resident death toll announced by the Florida Department of Health since the pandemic began, but it does not necessarily mean that every person died in the past 24 hours.
In Florida, the deaths announced on a given day could be from several days earlier because the state information does not include the exact date of death. Previously, the highest single-day Florida resident death toll was reported on Wednesday, with 216 deaths.
Florida’s Department of Health also deleted one non-resident death from its count Thursday, leaving the non-resident death toll at 123. The health department did not immediately respond to the Miami Herald’s inquiry as to why the death count was adjusted.
Confirmed COVID-19 cases in South Florida
▪ Miami-Dade County reported 2,773 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 60 new deaths, according to Florida’s Department of Health. The county now has 115,916 confirmed cases and 1,515 deaths.
▪ Broward County reported 1,342 additional confirmed cases of the disease and 38 new deaths. The county now has 54,312 known cases and 676 deaths.
▪ Palm Beach County saw 525 additional confirmed cases and 11 new deaths. The county now has 32,696 confirmed cases and 806 deaths.
▪ Monroe County reported 32 additional cases of the disease and no new deaths, according to the health department. The Florida Keys now have 1,230 confirmed cases and six deaths.
On Wednesday night, the administrator of the Florida Department of Health in Monroe County confirmed the death of two more people who tested positive for the disease but said that the medical examiner has yet to announce an official cause of death. If the deaths are determined to be COVID-19 related, the county’s death toll would rise to eight.
Here’s a breakdown on what else 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 11 a.m. Thursday, there were 8,429 COVID-19 patients admitted into hospitals throughout the state, according to the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration dashboard.
Of those, 1,854 were in Miami-Dade, 1,238 in Broward, 530 in Palm Beach and 14 in Monroe counties, 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, previously told the Miami Herald 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 Thursday, Miami-Dade hospitalizations for COVID-19 complications decreased from 2,079 to 2,061 according to Miami-Dade County’s “New Normal” dashboard. According to Wednesday’s data, 226 people were discharged and 169 people were admitted.
The state has had a total of 26,017 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 Thursday, Florida’s Department of Health reported 95,052 new tests on Wednesday. The positive rate was 15.98% of the total, according to the report. In total, 4,635,026 tests have been conducted.
To date, 3,584,193 people have been tested in Florida. Of the total tested, 461,379 (about 12.87%) have tested positive. The state says there are 3,304 tests with pending results.
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 30, 2020 at 10:46 AM with the headline "Florida sees 253 coronavirus deaths, breaking a record for the third day in a row."
