Florida’s confirmed COVID-19 total surpasses 532,800 with 6,229 additional cases
Florida’s Department of Health on Sunday confirmed 6,229 additional cases of COVID-19, pushing the state’s known total to 532,806. There were also 77 Florida resident deaths announced, bringing the statewide resident death toll to 8,186.
There were no new non-resident deaths announced, leaving the non-resident death toll at 129.
Throughout the pandemic, the newly confirmed cases reported on Sundays have tended to be lower than the other days of the week because fewer people work in labs and enter data on the weekends.
Sunday also saw the lowest number of newly confirmed deaths announced since Monday when 73 deaths were reported.
Confirmed COVID-19 cases in South Florida
▪ Miami-Dade County reported 244 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 27 new deaths, according to Florida’s Department of Health. The county now has 132,461 confirmed cases and 1,865 deaths.
▪ Broward County reported 654 additional confirmed cases of the disease and 14 new deaths. The county now has a known total of 62,268 cases and 803 deaths.
▪ Palm Beach County saw 420 additional confirmed cases and two new deaths. The county now has 37,020 confirmed cases and 931 deaths.
▪ Monroe County reported 12 additional cases of the disease and no new deaths, according to the health department. The Florida Keys now have 1,526 confirmed cases and 13 deaths.
COVID-19 hospitalizations in Florida
One of the tools that officials rely 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 3:15 p.m. Sunday, there were 6,847 COVID-19 patients admitted into hospitals throughout the state, according to the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration dashboard.
Of those, 1,502 were in Miami-Dade, 909 in Broward, 428 in Palm Beach and 8 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 Sunday, Miami-Dade hospitalizations for COVID-19 complications decreased from 1,747 to 1,682, according to Miami-Dade County’s “New Normal” dashboard. According to Sunday’s data, 107 people were discharged and 79 people were admitted.
The state has had a total of 29,131 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 Sunday, Florida’s Department of Health reported the results of 85,343 new tests on Saturday. The positive rate was 12.07% of the total, according to the report. In total, 5,274,241 tests have been conducted.
To date, 3,991,826 people have been tested in Florida. Of the total tested, 532,806 (13.35%) have tested positive. The state says there are 3,353 tests with pending results.
This story was originally published August 9, 2020 at 10:52 AM with the headline "Florida’s confirmed COVID-19 total surpasses 532,800 with 6,229 additional cases."
