Florida coronavirus cases pass 800,000 with 5,592 new cases, the most since August
Florida’s Department of Health on Friday confirmed 5,592 additional cases of COVID-19, bringing the state’s known total to 800,216. Also, 72 resident deaths were announced, bringing the resident death toll to 16,720.
One new non-resident death was also announced, bringing the non-resident toll to 207, according to Florida’s COVID-19 Data and Surveillance Dashboard.
Friday’s case count is the most reported since Aug. 15, when 6,352 cases were added. That is, if you exclude Sept. 1, the day the state reported a Quest Diagnostics data dump.
Friday’s single-day case count is the fourth consecutive day the state has reported more than 4,000 daily cases. Testing also saw some increase.
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 100,318 people tested on Thursday. The positivity rate of new cases (people who tested positive for the first time) increased from 4.87% to 5.89%.
If retests are included — people who have tested positive once and are being tested for a second time — the positivity rate increased from 6.02% to 7.22%, according to the report.
Confirmed COVID-19 cases in South Florida
▪ Miami-Dade County reported 883 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and nine new deaths, according to Florida’s Department of Health. The county now has 185,552 confirmed cases and 3,643 deaths. Percent positivity for new cases increased from 5.04% to 5.59%. The 14-day percent positivity average was 4.65%, according to Miami-Dade County’s “New Normal” Dashboard.
▪ Broward County reported 642 additional confirmed cases of the disease and no new deaths. The county now has a known total of 86,091 cases and 1,522 deaths. Percent positivity for new cases increased from 5.51% to 5.62%.
▪ Palm Beach County saw 405 additional confirmed cases and six new deaths. The county now has 52,184 confirmed cases and 1,586 deaths. Percent positivity for new cases decreased from 5.76% to 5.53%.
▪ Monroe County confirmed 21 additional cases and no new deaths. The county has a known total of 2,290 cases and 25 deaths. Percent positivity for new cases increased from 10.51% to 12.36%.
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 4:46 p.m. Friday, there were 2,356 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, 310 were in Miami-Dade, 229 in Broward, 151 in Palm Beach and four 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 decreased from 420 to 414, according to Miami-Dade County’s “New Normal” dashboard. According to Friday’s data, 65 people were discharged and 53 people were admitted.
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The state has had a total of 49,185 Florida residents hospitalized for COVID-19-related complications, according to Florida’s COVID-19 Data and Surveillance Dashboard.
This story was originally published October 30, 2020 at 11:49 AM.
