New COVID-19 cases in Florida drop to fewer than 8,000 for third straight day
Florida’s Department of Health confirmed 5,446 additional cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, bringing the state’s known total to 497,330. There were also 245 Florida resident deaths, bringing the statewide resident death toll to 7,402.
Tuesday’s daily total of newly confirmed cases is the third consecutive day Florida has reported fewer than 8,000 new cases.
Two new non-resident deaths in the state were also announced, bringing the non-resident toll to 124.
Since test results take at least several days to process, it’s still unclear if the past few days of lower totals were affected by the state-run testing site closures caused by Tropical Storm Isaias.
More than a dozen state and federal testing sites reopened at 8 a.m. Monday in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, with the rest expected to open by Wednesday morning.
While it’s still not clear if the testing closures have affected the totals of the past few days, the three-day rolling average of new daily cases, which helps smooth out day-to-day dips and spikes, shows that Florida has seen a slight decrease in newly confirmed cases in the past two weeks.
Confirmed COVID-19 cases in South Florida
▪ Miami-Dade County reported 1,115 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 30 new deaths, according to Florida’s Department of Health. The county now has 124,759 confirmed cases and 1,724 deaths.
▪ Broward County reported 422 additional confirmed cases of the disease and 17 new deaths. The county now has 58,953 known cases and 765 deaths.
▪ Palm Beach County saw 379 additional confirmed cases and 16 new deaths. The county now has 34,929 confirmed cases and 861 deaths.
▪ Monroe County reported 10 additional cases of the disease and two new deaths, according to the health department. The Florida Keys now have 1,389 confirmed cases and 13 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.
Last 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 p.m. Tuesday, there were 7,857 COVID-19 patients admitted into hospitals throughout the state, according to the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration dashboard.
Of those, 1,718 were in Miami-Dade, 1,103 in Broward, 476 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. Miami-Dade Deputy Mayor Jennifer Moon previously told the Miami Herald that there are a number of reasons the county’s hospitalization data might differ from the state’s.
She said they 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 Tuesday, Miami-Dade hospitalizations for COVID-19 complications decreased from 1,943 to 1,936, according to Miami-Dade County’s “New Normal” dashboard. According to Tuesday’s data, 172 people were discharged and 130 people were admitted.
The state has had a total of 27,952 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.
On Tuesday, Florida’s Department of Health reported the results of 60,994 new tests. The positive rate was 12.70% of the total, according to the report. In total, 4,908,466 tests have been conducted.
To date, 3,758,496 people have been tested in Florida. Of the total tested, 491,884 (13.09%) have tested positive. The state says there are 3,228 tests with pending results.
This story was originally published August 4, 2020 at 11:04 AM with the headline "New COVID-19 cases in Florida drop to fewer than 8,000 for third straight day."
