Florida reports the fewest new COVID-19 cases since June and 68 more deaths
The Florida Department of Health on Monday reported 1,885 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, the fewest since June 15.
By the calendar, that’s 2 1/2 months ago. By the pandemic, the 1,758 cases on June 15 pushed the state’s total novel coronavirus pandemic case total to 77,326. There had been 2,938 deaths.
Monday, Florida’s pandemic totals stand at 623,471 cases and 11,331 deaths. Half the state’s 68 deaths reported Monday came from Miami-Dade County.
South Florida counties
▪ Miami-Dade added 351 cases and 34 deaths, bringing its pandemic totals to 156,910 and 2,437, respectively. With the most recent daily positive test rate being 6.64%, the county is only one day from the goal of 14 consecutive days under 10%, as stated on Miami-Dade’s New Normal Dashboard. The average daily positive test rate over the last two weeks is 8.39%.
▪ Broward’s 171 cases moved its pandemic total to 70,950. One more death moved that total to 1,184. A positive test rate of 4.15% was the lowest in weeks, the fourth consecutive day and seventh of the last 10 under 5%.
▪ Palm Beach County’s 100 new cases mean 41,965 have caught COVID-19 in Palm Beach. Of those people, 1,119 have died.
▪ Monroe County had seven new confirmed cases and no deaths, bringing its total to 1,727 with 16 deaths.
Current hospitalizations
As of the Monday report from the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration, 3,740 people were currently hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19, a reduction of 60 people from Sunday.
The South Florida counties’ trends from the last few days continued: Miami-Dade down 11 to 683; Broward down 45, 9.6%, to 425; Palm Beach up 10 again to 180; Monroe staying the same at 1.
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.
Miami-Dade, which says there are 800 people in the county hospitalized primarily because of COVID-19, reported a drop in hospitalizations for the 12th time in 13 days.
Testing
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. Miami-Dade will allow indoor dining and casinos to reopen Monday.
Sunday, the state reported only 15,984 new people tested. Through the pandemic 4,622,552 residents and non-residents have been tested in Florida with a 13.5 positive test rate.
This story was originally published August 31, 2020 at 11:21 AM with the headline "Florida reports the fewest new COVID-19 cases since June and 68 more deaths."
