Florida reports more than 4,000 coronavirus cases, pushing known total past 584,000

Florida’s Department of Health on Wednesday confirmed 4,115 additional cases of COVID-19, bringing the state’s known total to 584,047. There were also 174 Florida resident deaths announced, bringing the resident death toll to 9,932.

There were no new nonresident deaths announced, leaving the nonresident toll at 135.

Confirmed COVID-19 Cases in South Florida

Note: The Florida Department of Health says that each county’s percent positivity for new cases (people who tested positive for the first time) does not include retests (people who have tested positive once and are being tested for a second time).

▪ Miami-Dade County reported 1,103 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19, and 40 new deaths, according to Florida’s Department of Health. The county now has 148,093 confirmed cases and 2,166 deaths. Percent positivity for new cases: 9.2%

▪ Broward County reported 341 additional confirmed cases of the disease and 24 new deaths. The county now has a known total of 67,534 cases and 1,049 deaths. Percent positivity for new cases: 9.2%

▪ Palm Beach County saw 202 additional confirmed cases and 16 new deaths. The county now has 39,662 confirmed cases and 1,022 deaths. Percent positivity for new cases: 9.2%

▪ Monroe County reported 16 additional cases of the disease and no new deaths, according to the health department. The Florida Keys now have 1,666 confirmed cases and 13 deaths. Percent positivity for new cases: 9.2%

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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.

The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration reports 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 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, there were 5,298 COVID-19 patients admitted into hospitals throughout the state, according to the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration dashboard.

Of those, 1,020 were in Miami-Dade, 709 in Broward, 357 in Palm Beach and 4 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 1,294 to 1,219, according to Miami-Dade County’s “New Normal” dashboard. According to Wednesday’s data, 155 people were discharged and 82 people were admitted.

The state has had a total of 34,194 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 67,822 people tested on Tuesday. The positive rate of new cases (people who tested positive for the first time) was 7.08%.

If retests are included — people who have tested positive once and are being tested for a second time — the positive rate for Wednesday’s testing was 10.21% of the total, according to the report.

In total, 5,805,672 tests have been conducted. To date, 4,312,904 people have been tested in Florida. Of the total tested, 576,094 (13.54%) have tested positive. The state says there are 3,850 tests with pending results.

This breaking news article will be updated.

This story was originally published August 19, 2020 at 11:01 AM.

Michelle Marchante

Miami Herald

305-376-2708

Michelle Marchante covers the pulse of healthcare in South Florida and also the City of Coral Gables. Before that, she covered the COVID-19 pandemic, hurricanes, crime, education, entertainment and other topics in South Florida for the Herald as a breaking news reporter. She recently won first place in the health reporting category in the 2025 Sunshine State Awards for her coverage of Steward Health’s bankruptcy. An investigative series about the abrupt closure of a Miami heart transplant program led Michelle and her colleagues to be recognized as finalists in two 2024 Florida Sunshine State Award categories. She also won second place in the 73rd annual Green Eyeshade Awards for her consumer-focused healthcare stories and was part of the team of reporters who won a 2022 Pulitzer Prize for the Miami Herald’s breaking news coverage of the Surfside building collapse. Michelle graduated with honors from Florida International University and was a 2025 National Press Foundation Covering Workplace Mental Health fellow and a 2020-2021 Poynter-Koch Media & Journalism fellow.  Support my work with a digital subscription