Florida adds more than 3,000 COVID-19 cases again as resident death toll hits 15,830
Florida’s Department of Health on Friday confirmed 3,449 additional cases of COVID-19, bringing the state’s known total to 748,437. Also, 94 resident deaths were announced, bringing the resident death toll to 15,830.
Four new non-resident deaths were also announced, bringing the non-resident toll to 200.
Friday is the second day this week that Florida reported more than 3,000 cases. It is also the highest single-day count reported since Sept. 19, when 3,573 cases were added. Testing did see some increase and the positivity rate decreased slightly.
A three-day rolling average of new daily cases, which helps smooth out day-to-day dips and spikes, shows that Florida has seen an increase in newly confirmed cases in the past two weeks. Cases have spiked most in places outside of South Florida, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
And while Friday’s single day case count was the most reported since last month, there was an exception on Oct. 11, when more than 5,000 cases were added because duplicated test results clogged up Florida’s data reporting system for a day.
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 530 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 19 new deaths, according to Florida’s Department of Health. The county now has 177,339 confirmed cases and 3,520 deaths. Percent positivity for new cases decreased from 5.06% to 4.11%. The 14-day percent positivity average was 4.62%, according to Miami-Dade County’s “New Normal” Dashboard.
▪ Broward County reported 331 additional confirmed cases of the disease and eight new deaths. The county has a known total of 80,443 cases and 1,500 deaths. Percent positivity for new cases increased from 3.81% to 3.96%.
▪ Palm Beach County saw 178 additional confirmed cases and six new deaths. The county now has 48,674 confirmed cases and 1,478 deaths. Percent positivity for new cases decreased from 3.81% to 3.37%
▪ Monroe County confirmed 20 additional cases and no new deaths. The county has a known total of 2,022 cases and 24 deaths. Percent positivity for new cases decreased from 10.18% to 7.81%.
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 5:31 p.m. Friday, there were 2,083 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 Friday’s hospitalizations, 267 were in Miami-Dade, 177 in Broward, 99 in Palm Beach and seven 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 Friday, Miami-Dade hospitalizations for COVID-19 complications had a slight decrease from 333 to 328, according to Miami-Dade County’s “New Normal” dashboard. According to Friday’s data, 54 people were discharged and 42 people were admitted.
The state has had a total of 46,862 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 Friday, Florida’s Department of Health reported the results of 84,507 people tested on Thursday. This is the second highest number of test results (includes retests) reported this month.
The positivity rate of new cases (people who tested positive for the first time) decreased from 5.18% to 4.38%.
If retests are included — people who have tested positive once and are being tested for a second time — the positivity rate decreased from 6.69% to 5.32%, according to the report.
This story was originally published October 16, 2020 at 11:43 AM.
