COVID-19 resident death toll passes 17,000 as Florida adds 5,245 cases
Florida’s Department of Health on Friday confirmed 5,245 additional cases of COVID-19, bringing the state’s known total to 832,625. Also, 53 resident deaths were announced, bringing the resident death toll to 17,014.
One new non-resident death was also announced, bringing the non-resident toll to 210, according to Florida’s COVID-19 Data and Surveillance Dashboard.
Since the beginning of October, Florida has seen an increase in newly confirmed cases, and Friday is the sixth consecutive day that the state’s single-day case count is higher than 4,000. On Thursday, Florida reported 6,257 cases of COVID-19, the most seen since mid-August — excluding Quest Diagnostics’ data dump.
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 1,110 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and one new death, according to Florida’s Department of Health. The county now has a total of 191,838 confirmed cases and 3,671 deaths. Percent positivity for new cases increased from 6.87% to 6.96%. The 14-day percent positivity average was 5.58%, according to Miami-Dade County’s “New Normal” Dashboard.
▪ Broward County reported 567 additional confirmed cases of the disease and three new deaths. The county now has a known total of 89,751 cases and 1,545 deaths. Percent positivity for new cases decreased from 6.31% to 6.13%.
▪ Palm Beach County saw 364 additional confirmed cases and no new deaths. The county now has 54,624 confirmed cases and 1,606 deaths. Percent positivity for new cases decreased from 7.21% to 4.61%.
▪ Monroe County confirmed 45 additional cases and no new deaths. The county has a known total of 2,522 cases and 25 deaths. Percent positivity for new cases increased from 10.00% to 12.28%.
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 4:03 p.m. Friday, there were 2,564 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, 331 were in Miami-Dade, 284 in Broward, 147 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 437 to 416, according to Miami-Dade County’s “New Normal” dashboard. According to Friday’s data, 75 people were discharged and 45 people were admitted.
The state has had a total of 50,077 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 89,359 people tested on Thursday. The positivity rate of new cases (people who tested positive for the first time) increased from 6.18% to 6.36%.
If retests are included — people who have tested positive once and are being tested for a second time — the positivity rate increased from 7.35% to 7.41%, according to the report.
This story was originally published November 6, 2020 at 1:28 PM.
