Florida adds 1,533 coronavirus cases, and 48 new deaths push toll past 15,400
Florida’s Department of Health on Monday confirmed 1,533 additional cases of COVID-19, bringing the state’s known total to 736,024. Also, 48 resident deaths were announced, bringing the resident death toll to 15,412.
The non-resident death toll decreased by one, lowering it to 187, according to Florida’s COVID-19 Data and Surveillance Dashboard. It was not immediately clear what caused the decrease. Florida’s Department of Health was not immediately available for comment.
Mondays can see a lower case count compared to other days in the week because fewer people work in labs and enter data on the weekends. This Monday’s single-day case count is the lowest recorded since last Monday’s 1,415 cases.
It also comes a day after Florida reported 5,570 confirmed COVID-19 cases, the most recorded since August. However, Sunday’s single-day count also included Saturday’s numbers because the state held off on its daily COVID-19 update after duplicated tests clogged up its reporting system.
On Saturday, the Florida Department of Health said it had received about 400,000 previously reported test results from Helix Laboratory, a private lab, and that officials had to eliminate hundreds of thousands of duplicated test results.
On Monday, however, the department released a statement saying that Helix Laboratory was not at fault, like the department originally said, for Saturday’s problem.
The health department said Helix’s submission of test results was “significantly lower” than 400,000 and that it was a technical issue that caused the duplicated test results, according to the News Service of Florida.
“This was not the fault of Helix or the Department of Health. We are working with technical experts to ensure this does not happen with subsequent data submissions,” the Florida Department of Health said in a statement Monday.
Helix said in a statement it submitted results in accordance with Florida statutes and DOH procedures and was not at fault. The lab says it submitted about 3,000 reports and from what it can tell the transmission was normal.
“We remain committed to providing accurate, rapid and reliable COVID-19 testing to the residents of Florida and working closely with the Florida Department of Public Health in the fight against COVID-19 to ensure access to accurate and reliable data,” the private laboratory said.
The lab is working with the DOH to see why its historical data was impacted.
Here’s what else you need to know:
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 279 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and six new deaths, according to Florida’s Department of Health. The county now has 175,397 confirmed cases and 3,445 deaths. Percent positivity for new cases: 4.33%. The 14-day positivity average was 4.89%, according to Miami-Dade County’s “New Normal” dashboard.
▪ Broward County reported 102 additional confirmed cases of the disease and two new deaths. The county has a known total of 79,434 cases and 1,469 deaths. Percent positivity for new cases: 2.36%
▪ Palm Beach County saw 49 additional confirmed cases and three new deaths. The county now has 48,004 confirmed cases and 1,449 deaths. Percent positivity for new cases: 1.95%
▪ Monroe County did not confirm any new cases or deaths. The county has a known total of 1,958 cases and 24 deaths.
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 providing only 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 11:46 a.m. Monday, there were 2,203 COVID-19 patients admitted into hospitals throughout the state, according to the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration dashboard. This is a significant decrease from early August, when more than 5,000 COVID-19 patients were admitted into hospitals throughout the state.
Of Monday’s hospitalizations, 277 were in Miami-Dade, 179 in Broward, 116 in Palm Beach and five 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 Monday, Miami-Dade hospitalizations for COVID-19 complications increased from 326 to 341, according to Miami-Dade County’s “New Normal” dashboard. According to Monday’s data, 32 people were discharged and 40 people were admitted.
The state has had a total of 46,015 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 positivity 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 Monday, Florida’s Department of Health reported the results of 40,510 people tested on Sunday. The positivity rate of new cases (people who tested positive for the first time) was 4.28%.
If retests are included — people who have tested positive once and are being tested for a second time — the positivity rate rose from 4.43% to 5.17% of the total, the report said.
This story was originally published October 12, 2020 at 11:15 AM with the headline "Florida adds 1,533 coronavirus cases, and 48 new deaths push toll past 15,400."
