Florida coronavirus deaths near 17,000 as 56 are added. State sees 4,637 new cases
Florida’s Department of Health on Tuesday confirmed 4,637 additional cases of COVID-19, bringing the state’s known total to 816,700. Also, 56 resident deaths were announced, bringing the resident death toll to 16,890.
There were no new non-resident deaths announced, leaving the non-resident toll at 209.
The state released its report a little over four hours after the usual 11 a.m. release time. Health officials did not give any explanation on the delay.
Confirmed COVID-19 cases in South Florida
▪ Miami-Dade County reported 879 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and six new deaths, according to Florida’s Department of Health. The county now has 188,636 confirmed cases and 3,675 deaths.
▪ Broward County reported 503 additional confirmed cases of the disease and one new death. The county now has a known total of 87,959 cases and 1,532 deaths.
▪ Palm Beach County saw 360 additional confirmed cases and four new deaths. The county now has 53,511 confirmed cases and 1,599 deaths.
▪ Monroe County confirmed 35 additional cases and no new deaths. The county has a known total of 2,401 cases and 25 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 3:46 p.m. Tuesday, there were 2,485 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, 323 were in Miami-Dade, 251 in Broward, 162 in Palm Beach and three 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.
Miami-Dade has not yet released Tuesday’s numbers.
On Monday, Miami-Dade hospitalizations for COVID-19 complications increased from 426 to 435, according to Miami-Dade County’s “New Normal” dashboard. According to Monday’s data, 36 people were discharged and 42 people were admitted.
The state has had a total of 49,485 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 66,238 people tested on Monday. The positivity rate of new cases (people who tested positive for the first time) increased from 6.43% to 7.58%.
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If retests are included — people who have tested positive once and are being tested for a second time — the positivity rate increased from 8.38% to 8.92%, according to the report.
This breaking news article will be updated.
This story was originally published November 3, 2020 at 4:12 PM.
