Florida adds 3,269 new COVID-19 cases as the death toll rises to more than 10,800
Florida’s Department of Health on Thursday confirmed 3,269 additional cases of COVID-19, bringing the state’s known total to 611,991. There were also 135 Florida resident deaths announced, bringing the resident death toll to 10,868.
There were four new non-resident deaths also announced, bringing the nonresident toll to 143.
CONFIRMED COVID-19 CASES IN SOUTH FLORIDA
▪ Miami-Dade County reported 622 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19, and 29 new deaths, according to Florida’s Department of Health. The county now has 154,757 confirmed cases and 2,346 deaths. Percent positivity for new cases: 7.76%.
▪ Broward County reported 264 additional confirmed cases of the disease and nine new deaths. The county now has a known total of 70,147 cases and 1,169 deaths. Percent positivity for new cases: 5.93%.
▪ Palm Beach County saw 182 additional confirmed cases and 16 new deaths. The county now has 41,195 confirmed cases and 1,094 deaths. Percent positivity for new cases: 5.22%.
▪ Monroe County saw four additional confirmed cases and no new deaths. The county now has a known total of 1,704 cases and 15 deaths. Percent positivity for new cases: 6.21%.
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 5:01 p.m. Thursday, there were 4,252 COVID-19 patients admitted into hospitals throughout the state, according to the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration dashboard.
Of those, 766 were in Miami-Dade, 543 in Broward, 238 in Palm Beach and none 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 Thursday, Miami-Dade hospitalizations for COVID-19 complications decreased from 930 to 894, according to Miami-Dade County’s “New Normal” dashboard. According to Thursday’s data, 116 people were discharged and 72 people were admitted.
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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 Thursday, Florida’s Department of Health reported the results of 58,766 people tested on Wednesday. The positive rate of new cases (people who tested positive for the first time) was 6.36%.
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 9.04% of the total, according to the report.
In total, 6,167,043 tests have been conducted. To date, 4,524,203 people have been tested in Florida. Of the total tested, 611,991 (13.53%) have tested positive. The state says there are 3,473 tests with pending results.
This story was originally published August 27, 2020 at 11:00 AM with the headline "Florida adds 3,269 new COVID-19 cases as the death toll rises to more than 10,800."
