Florida confirms 257 coronavirus deaths, hitting a record for the fourth day in a row
Florida’s Department of Health on Friday confirmed 9,007 additional cases of COVID-19, bringing the state’s known total to 470,386. There were also 257 Florida resident deaths announced, breaking a fatality record for the fourth straight day.
The statewide resident death toll is now at 6,843.
The 257 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 Thursday, with 253 deaths.
There were no new non-resident deaths announced today so the non-resident death toll remains at 123. On Thursday, Florida’s Department of Health deleted one non-resident death from its count putting the toll at 123.
The health department told the Miami Herald the change was made by a county health department.
“As epidemiological investigations progress, often, more data become available,” the DOH said in an email. “It’s likely the investigators received updated address information and the case was classified as a Florida resident.”
Confirmed COVID-19 cases in South Florida
▪ Miami-Dade County reported 2,546 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 96 new deaths, according to Florida’s Department of Health. The county now has 118,462 confirmed cases and 1,611 deaths. The positive rate was 2.15% of the total.
▪ Broward County reported 1,099 additional confirmed cases of the disease and 33 new deaths. The county now has 55,411 known cases and 709 deaths. The positive rate was 1.98% of the total.
▪ Palm Beach County saw 578 additional confirmed cases and nine new deaths. The county now has 33,274 confirmed cases and 815 deaths. The positive rate was 1.73% of the total.
▪ Monroe County reported 70 additional cases of the disease and two new deaths, according to the health department. The Florida Keys now have 1,300 confirmed cases and eight deaths. The positive rate was 5.38% of the total.
All state-supported drive-thru and walk-up COVID-19 testing closed at 5 p.m. Thursday and will remain closed through Tuesday because of the threat of Hurricane Isaias. Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez said county-run sites would also abide by the closing.
The sites are expected to reopen by 8 a.m. Wednesday, according to Florida’s Department of Health.
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 5:16 p.m. Friday, there were 8,209 COVID-19 patients admitted into hospitals throughout the state, according to the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration dashboard.
Of those, 1,758 were in Miami-Dade, 1,206 in Broward, 523 in Palm Beach and 12 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 Friday, Miami-Dade hospitalizations for COVID-19 complications decreased from 2,061 to 1,989 according to Miami-Dade County’s “New Normal” dashboard. According to Friday’s data, 217 people were discharged and 147 people were admitted.
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The state has had a total of 26,533 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 Friday, Florida’s Department of Health reported 97,644 new tests on Thursday. The positive rate was 13.99% of the total, according to the report. In total, 4,712,187 tests have been conducted.
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To date, 3,633,393 people have been tested in Florida. Of the total tested, 470,386 (about 12.95%) have tested positive. The state says there are 3,363 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 breaking news article will be updated.
This story was originally published July 31, 2020 at 10:53 AM.
