Florida adds 8,109 coronavirus cases as death toll passes 8,700
Florida’s Department of Health on Wednesday confirmed 8,109 additional cases of COVID-19, pushing the state’s known total to 550,901. An additional 212 Florida resident deaths bring the statewide resident death toll to 8,765.
One new non-resident death was also announced in the state, bringing the non-resident death toll to 133.
Confirmed COVID-19 Cases in South Florida
▪ Miami-Dade County reported 4,141 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19, and 30 new deaths, according to Florida’s Department of Health. The county now has 139,271 confirmed cases and 1,939 deaths. Percent positivity for new cases: 18.3%.
Florida’s Department of Health says the county’s single-day high of 4,141 newly confirmed cases is “not reflective of current trends” because it was caused by a backlog of testing data dating back to June 23 from Niznik Lab Corp in Miami.
“The lab reported over 4,000 cases occurring over the past 7 weeks, but which had not been reported to DOH until today,” the health department wrote on Twitter. “Therefore, this backlog severely skews today’s daily report for Miami-Dade & is not reflective of current trends.”
▪ Broward County reported 475 additional confirmed cases of the disease and three new deaths. The county now has a known total of 64,080 cases and 859 deaths. Percent positivity for new cases: 8.4%.
▪ Palm Beach County saw 293 additional confirmed cases and 14 new deaths. The county now has 37,934 confirmed cases and 954 deaths. Percent positivity for new cases: 6.1%.
▪ Monroe County reported eight additional cases of the disease and no new deaths, according to the health department. The Florida Keys now have 1,556 confirmed cases and 13 deaths. Percent positivity for new cases: 8.9%.
Here’s a breakdown on what you need to know:
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 5:01 p.m. Wednesday, there were 6,551 COVID-19 patients admitted into hospitals throughout the state, according to the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration dashboard.
Of those, 1,368 were in Miami-Dade, 885 in Broward, 421 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. Officials say this could be for a number of reasons including the frequency of daily updates.
On Wednesday, Miami-Dade hospitalizations for COVID-19 complications decreased from 1,623 to 1,568, according to Miami-Dade County’s “New Normal” dashboard. According to Wednesday’s data, 190 people were discharged and 100 people were admitted.
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The state has had a total of 31,947 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.
Epidemiologists then use the testing data to create a positive rate. The rate helps them determine if a rise in cases is because of an increase in testing, or if it means there’s increased transmission of the virus in the community.
On Wednesday, Florida’s Department of Health reported the results of 81,197 people tested on Tuesday. The positive rate of new cases (people who tested positive for the first time) was 11.89%.
If retests are included — people who have tested positive once and are being tested for a second time — the positive rate for Tuesday’s testing was 16.60% of the total, according to the report.
In total, 5,438,795 tests have been conducted. To date, 4,093,972 people have been tested in Florida. Of the total tested, 550,901 (13.46%) have tested positive. The state says there are 3,529 tests with pending results.
This article will be updated.
This story was originally published August 12, 2020 at 10:49 AM with the headline "Florida adds 8,109 coronavirus cases as death toll passes 8,700."
