Florida adds 84 resident deaths and 3,662 new COVID cases, pushing total past 760,000
Florida’s Department of Health on Tuesday confirmed 3,662 additional cases of COVID-19, bringing the state’s known total to 760,389. Also, 84 resident deaths were announced, bringing the resident death toll to 16,105.
Two new non-resident deaths were also announced, bringing the non-resident toll to 203.
October has seen an increase in newly confirmed cases, and Tuesday’s single-day case count is the second highest number reported this month if you exclude Oct. 11. That’s when the state added Saturday’s count to Sunday’s because duplicated test results clogged up its data reporting system for a day.
If Oct. 11 is excluded, the highest single-day case count this month was on Saturday with 4,044 cases.
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 560 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 14 new deaths, according to Florida’s Department of Health. The county now has 179,286 confirmed cases and 3,561 deaths. Percent positivity for new cases increased from 4.16% to 5.05%. The 14-day percent positivity average was 4.55%, according to Miami-Dade County “New Normal” Dashboard.
▪ Broward County reported 260 additional confirmed cases of the disease and two new deaths. The county has a known total of 81,537 cases and 1,517 deaths. Percent positivity for new cases increased from 3.73% to 4.39%.
▪ Palm Beach County saw 230 additional confirmed cases and 13 new deaths. The county now has 49,298 confirmed cases and 1,510 deaths. Percent positivity for new cases increased from 2.62% to 5.50%
▪ Monroe County confirmed 13 additional cases and no new deaths. The county has a known total of 2,093 cases and 25 deaths. Percent positivity for new cases increased from 8.80% to 14.14%.
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 1:46 p.m. Tuesday, there were 2,095 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 Tuesday’s hospitalizations, 259 were in Miami-Dade, 198 in Broward, 107 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 Tuesday, Miami-Dade hospitalizations for COVID-19 complications increased by one. There are now 327 people hospitalized, according to Miami-Dade County’s “New Normal” dashboard. According to Tuesday’s data, 47 people were discharged and 43 people were admitted.
The state has had a total of 47,352 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 Tuesday, Florida’s Department of Health reported the results of 63,420 people tested on Monday. The positivity rate of new cases (people who tested positive for the first time) increased from 4.84% to 6.17%.
If retests are included — people who have tested positive once and are being tested for a second time — the positivity rate increased from 6.00% to 7.69%, according to the report.
This story was originally published October 20, 2020 at 11:21 AM.
