Florida COVID update: 19,048 cases reported and a steep dip in number of hospital patients
Florida on Wednesday reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 19,048 more COVID-19 cases added Tuesday, according to Miami Herald calculations of CDC data. The state also reported 10 new deaths.
In all, Florida has recorded at least 3,269,502 confirmed COVID cases and 44,571 deaths statewide. In the past seven days, on average, the state has added 263 deaths and 19,908 cases each day, according to Herald calculations.
During Florida’s third peak, COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations appear to be at record highs, but reports from the Florida Department of Health show “artificially” few deaths in recent weeks.
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.
Florida COVID-19 vaccine rates
As of the Wednesday report, 11,423,459 eligible Floridians — 53.2% 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 1,824,924 people, or 67.2% of the county’s total population, are fully vaccinated.
▪ In Broward County about 1,104,846 people are fully vaccinated, or 56.6% of the county’s population.
▪ In Palm Beach County about 813,648 people are fully vaccinated, or 54.4% of the county’s population.
▪ In Monroe County about 46,678 people are fully vaccinated, or 62.9% of the county’s population.
▪ In Manatee County about 200,339 people are fully vaccinated, or 49.7% of the county’s population.
COVID-19 hospitalizations in Florida
There were 15,177 people hospitalized for COVID-19 in Florida on Wednesday, according to data reported to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services from 232 Florida hospitals. That is 505 fewer patients than Tuesday’s COVID patient population.
COVID-19 patients also accounted for 27.81% of all hospital patients.
Of those hospitalized in Florida, 3,315 people were in intensive care unit beds, a decrease of 111. That represents 49.89% of the state’s ICU hospital beds from 231 hospitals reporting data.
Wednesday’s Miami-Dade County report said there were 1,397 COVID patients in the county’s hospitals on Tuesday, a decrease of 228 from the previous day’s report. Of the 102 new COVID patients, 86 (84.3%) had not been vaccinated.
Broward County’s Wednesday report said there were 1,370 COVID patients in the county’s hospitals, a decrease of 46 from Tuesday’s patient population.
This story was originally published September 1, 2021 at 1:45 PM.
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