Monday Florida COVID update: 1,064 more deaths, hospitalizations, ICU patients decrease
Florida on Monday reported 46,105 more COVID-19 cases and 1,064 additional deaths to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to Miami Herald calculations of CDC data.
All but 51 of the newly reported deaths, about 95%, occurred after Aug. 9, according to the Herald analysis. About 64% of the newly reported died in the past two weeks, the analysis showed. The majority of deaths happened during Florida’s latest surge in COVID-19 cases, fueled by the delta variant.
In the past seven days, on average, the state has added 346 deaths and 17,570 cases each day, according to Herald calculations of CDC data.
Monday’s jump in the number of reported cases and deaths is due to the newest way deaths and cases are counted and the agency not reporting new numbers on Saturday or Sunday. The numbers include totals from the two weekend days and Friday.
This new way of reporting was implemented by the CDC in early August, causing occasional one-day aberrations like the 1,388 additional deaths on Thursday and 902 more deaths reported Aug. 31.
In all, Florida has recorded at least 3,354,836 confirmed COVID cases and 46,973 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 hospitalizations in Florida
Around the state, 256 hospitals reported 13,773 people hospitalized for COVID-19 in Florida on Sunday, according to data released by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. That’s 155 fewer patients than the previous day’s report.
COVID-19 patients took up 23.95% of patient beds available in reporting hospitals.
Of those hospitalized, 3,183 people were in intensive care unit beds, a decrease of 31 from the previous day’s report. That represents 48.51% of the ICU hospital beds in the 256 reporting hospitals.
Monday’s Miami-Dade County report said there were 1,176 COVID patients in the county’s hospitals on Sunday, an increase of 95 from the previous day’s report. Of the 89 new COVID patients, 75 (84.3%) had not been vaccinated.
This story was originally published September 6, 2021 at 2:13 PM with the headline "Monday Florida COVID update: 1,064 more deaths, hospitalizations, ICU patients decrease."
