Florida adds 9,642 new COVID cases and reports 179 deaths. Death toll passes 7,000
Florida’s Department of Health on Friday confirmed 9,642 additional cases of COVID-19, bringing the state’s known total to 480,028. There were also 179 Florida resident deaths announced, which stopped the four-day run of new daily fatality records.
Friday’s 257 deaths was the most reported in a single day.
The statewide resident death toll is now at 7,022.
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. On Saturday, Florida’s Department of Health also deleted one non-resident death from its count, leaving the non-resident death toll at 122. The health department did not respond to the Miami Herald’s inquiry as to why the death count was adjusted for the second consecutive day.
Due to the threat of Hurricane Isaias, all state-run COVID-19 testing sites were closed at 5 p.m. Thursday as a precaution and are expected to reopen by 8 a.m. Wednesday, according to Florida’s Department of Health.
Confirmed COVID-19 cases in South Florida
▪ Miami-Dade County reported 2,745 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 36 new deaths, according to Florida’s Department of Health. The number of confirmed cases rose by 199 compared to Friday but the number of reported deaths dipped from 96. The county now has 121,207 confirmed cases and 1,647 deaths.
▪ Broward County reported 1,386 additional confirmed cases of the disease and 33 new deaths. The number of confirmed cases rose by 287 compared to Friday and for the second consecutive day the number of new reported deaths was 33. The county now has 56,797 known cases and 742 deaths.
▪ Palm Beach County saw 580 additional confirmed cases and 18 new deaths. That’s two more confirmed cases compared to Friday, and the newly reported deaths doubled from Friday’s nine. The county now has 33,854 confirmed cases and 833 deaths.
▪ Monroe County reported 25 additional cases of the disease and one new death, according to the health department. The Keys had reported 70 new cases and two deaths Friday. The Florida Keys now have 1,325 confirmed cases and nine deaths.
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 3:46 p.m. Saturday, there were 8,072 COVID-19 patients admitted into hospitals throughout the state, according to the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration dashboard.
Of those, 1,754 were in Miami-Dade, 1,164 in Broward, 496 in Palm Beach and 11 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 Saturday, Miami-Dade hospitalizations for COVID-19 complications decreased from 1,989 to 1,945 according to Miami-Dade County’s “New Normal” dashboard. According to Saturday’s data, 210 people were discharged and 137 people were admitted.
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The state has had a total of 26,9672 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 Saturday, Florida’s Department of Health reported 100,568 new tests on Friday. The positive rate was 15.09% of the total, according to the report. In total, 4,793,361 tests have been conducted.
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This story was originally published August 1, 2020 at 11:56 AM with the headline "Florida adds 9,642 new COVID cases and reports 179 deaths. Death toll passes 7,000."
