After recent spikes, Florida adds 2,231 new COVID-19 cases. But testing dropped significantly
Florida’s Department of Health on Saturday confirmed 2,331 additional cases of COVID-19, bringing the state’s known total to 802,547. Also, 41 resident deaths were announced, bringing the resident death toll to 16,761.
The state reported one new non-resident death, bringing the non-resident toll to 208, according to Florida’s COVID-19 Data and Surveillance Dashboard.
The big drop in reported cases from the 5,592 new cases reported on Friday could be due to so few new tests reported on Saturday.
On Saturday, the state reported that 37,203 people were tested on Friday. On Friday, the state reported 85,630 people were tested the previous day.
And testing in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe all declined based on what the state is reporting Saturday.
Friday’s case count was 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 was the fourth consecutive day the state had reported more than 4,000 daily cases. Testing also saw some increase in that report.
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 Saturday, Florida’s Department of Health reported the results of 37,203 people tested on Friday. The positivity rate of new cases increased from 4.89% to 6.29%.
Confirmed COVID-19 cases in South Florida
▪ Miami-Dade County reported 339 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and four new deaths, according to Florida’s Department of Health. The county now has 185,891 confirmed cases and 3,647 deaths. Percent positivity for new cases increased from 5.07% to 5.80% The 14-day percent positivity average was 4.73%, according to Miami-Dade County’s “New Normal” Dashboard.
▪ Broward County reported 144 additional confirmed cases of the disease and one new death. The county now has a known total of 86,235 cases and 1,523 deaths. Percent positivity for new cases decreased from 5.55% to 4.18%.
▪ Palm Beach County saw 263 additional confirmed cases and two new deaths. The county now has 52,447 confirmed cases and 1,588 deaths. Percent positivity for new cases increased from 5.76% to 7.37%.
▪ Monroe County confirmed 14 additional cases and no new deaths. The county has a known total of 2,304 cases and 25 deaths. Percent positivity for new cases increased from 10.76% to 16.87%.
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 9:30 a.m. Saturday, there were 2,319 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 Saturday’s hospitalizations, 283 were in Miami-Dade, 232 in Broward, 156 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 Saturday, Miami-Dade hospitalizations for COVID-19 complications decreased from 412 to 409, according to Miami-Dade County’s “New Normal” dashboard. According to Saturday’s data, 61 people were discharged and 50 people were admitted.
The state has had a total of 49,338 Florida residents hospitalized for COVID-19-related complications, according to Florida’s COVID-19 Data and Surveillance Dashboard.
This story was originally published October 31, 2020 at 12:08 PM with the headline "After recent spikes, Florida adds 2,231 new COVID-19 cases. But testing dropped significantly."
