New COVID-19 cases are up and new deaths are down as Florida hits 643,867 cases
The Florida Department of Health on Saturday added 3,656 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 61 resident deaths. The case number rose by 458 compared to Friday but there 39 fewer reported deaths across the state.
The number of non-resident deaths adjusted down by one to 152. The state did not explain why.
Florida’s pandemic totals are 643,867 cases and 11,811 deaths.
South Florida counties
▪ Miami-Dade added 549 confirmed cases and 18 deaths, bringing its pandemic totals to 161,018 and 2,650, respectively. There were 58 more cases reported Saturday than on Friday and 14 fewer reported deaths. The daily positivity rate from 8,669 tests was 6.61%, higher than Friday’s 5.95%. But the figure was still the 18th consecutive day of a goal of under 10%, as stated on Miami-Dade’s New Normal Dashboard.
▪ Broward added 232 new confirmed cases and three deaths to move its pandemic total to 73,112 cases and 1,215 deaths. This represents 14 fewer daily cases than Friday and three fewer deaths. The daily positivity rate from 5,666 tests was 4.27%, lower than Friday’s 4.29% and continuing a trend of 11 days under 5%.
▪ Palm Beach County added 143 new confirmed cases, 24 more than reported on Friday’s daily, and two new deaths, eight fewer than reported Friday. This means 42,905 have caught COVID-19 in Palm Beach and 1,162 have died. Daily positivity from 4,961 tests was 3.29%, down from Friday’s 3.60%.
▪ Monroe County had four new confirmed cases — three more than on Friday, and no deaths, bringing its cases total to 1,758 and holding at 16 deaths. Daily positivity from 85 tests was 2.35%, down from Friday’s 4.30%.
Current hospitalizations
As of the 10 a.m. Saturday report from the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration, 3,244 people were currently hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19, a reduction of 144 people from Friday morning.
Three South Florida counties’ hospitalizations went down compared to 11:30 a.m. Friday. The agency updates the figures throughout the day. On Saturday morning, Miami-Dade went down 36 to 580; Broward down 23, to 364; Palm Beach down 19 to 175; Monroe up one to two.
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 had 672 people in the county hospitalized primarily because of COVID-19, a drop from Friday’s 709, and the 17th drop in over two weeks. The county reports 55 new COVID patients were admitted to hospitals and 122 were discharged.
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 allowed indoor dining and casinos to reopen Monday — with restrictions.
Saturday, the state’s dashboard reported 63,188 people were tested with a daily positivity rate of 5.97%. Through the pandemic, 4,770,876 residents and non-residents have been tested in Florida with a 13.5% cumulative percent positive test rate.
This report will be updated.
This story was originally published September 5, 2020 at 11:17 AM with the headline "New COVID-19 cases are up and new deaths are down as Florida hits 643,867 cases."
