Florida COVID update: 46,571 more cases over last two days as hospitalizations rise
Florida reported 46,571 COVID-19 cases to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention over the last two days on Saturday, according to Herald calculations of CDC data.
The state also reported 53 new deaths in the last two days. In all, Florida has recorded at least 3,040,590 confirmed COVID cases statewide and 42,001 deaths.
On Friday, the CDC’s website did update with new figures, but it showed Florida and several other states had zero new cases and deaths on Thursday. The newest report of cases includes the not yet reported Thursday figures, 24,438 cases and 42 deaths.
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREThe Herald publishes the number of new COVID-19 cases and deaths reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after each update by the agency.
On Aug. 10, the Florida Department of Health changed the way it reported new cases and deaths to the CDC. Cases and deaths used to be logged as total new cases reported on a single day. Now, Florida is reporting cases by the “case date,” according to the CDC, rather than the date the case was logged into the system. The result of this change is a lag in cases by date and a number of cases back-filling over time.
The Herald will continue to report the difference in total cases and deaths from one day to the next in stories about daily new cases and deaths, as this is consistent with the way data have been presented in daily stories since the beginning of the pandemic.
More information
The Herald is calculating new cases using the difference between cumulative total of cases and the total from the previous day, as pulled daily from the CDC trends data. New deaths are calculated the same way.
As a result, the “new cases” and “new deaths” listed on the CDC site for any given day may be different than numbers published by the Herald for the same day.
According to a statement from CDC spokesperson Jasmine Reed on Aug. 18: “Florida’s aggregate case and death data includes case date for cases and date of death for deaths. The method applies data shared by Florida and to data displayed on COVID Data Tracker. Other States also use this reporting method and states can vary in the reporting method. For example, data as of the date that states submit may be the date that a state received its data from its reporting entities, or it might be another dating method that the state prefers.”
DOH spokesperson Weesam Khoury said Florida’s new reporting system “will ensure that continuous epidemiological analyses provide the most updated data to the public.” Neither agency provided further explanation of how a “case date” is assigned to each new case.
COVID-19 vaccine rates in Florida
As of the Saturday report, 10,998,494 eligible Floridians — 51.2% of the state’s population — had completed the two-dose series of Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna, or have completed Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine, according to the CDC.
COVID-19 VACCINES IN SOUTH FLORIDA
The CDC reports that every county’s level of community transmission is high. Here’s how many people have been fully vaccinated in South Florida, according to the CDC.
▪ In Miami-Dade County about 1,756,630 people, or 64.7% of the county’s total population, are fully vaccinated.
▪ In Broward County about 1,062,927 people are fully vaccinated, or 54.4% of the county’s population.
▪ In Palm Beach County about 786,283 people are fully vaccinated, or 52.5% of the county’s population.
▪ In Monroe County about 45,373 people are fully vaccinated, or 61.1% of the county’s population.
▪ In Manatee County about 193,953 people are fully vaccinated, or 48.1% of the county’s population.
COVID-19 hospitalizations in Florida
There were 17,235 people hospitalized for COVID-19 in Florida on Saturday, according to data reported to the from 258 Florida hospitals. This is 37 more patients than yesterday’s COVID patient population.
COVID-19 patients also accounted for 29.49% of all hospital patients.
Of the hospitalized in Florida, 3,552 people were in intensive care unit beds, an increase of two. That represents 55.06% of the state’s ICU hospital beds from 258 hospitals reporting data.
Saturday’s Miami-Dade County report said there were 1,798 COVID patients in the county’s hospitals on Friday, a rise of 10 from the previous day’s report. Of the 202 new COVID patients, 182 (90.1%) had not been vaccinated.
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