Florida COVID update: 11,300 more cases reported and fewer patients in the hospital
Florida on Tuesday reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 11,300 more COVID-19 cases and three deaths, according to Miami Herald calculations of CDC data.
In all, Florida has recorded at least 3,453,390 confirmed COVID cases and 49,254 deaths.
In the last seven days, on average, the state has added 326 deaths and 12,627 cases to the daily cumulative total, according to Herald calculations of CDC data.
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
About 11,872,566 eligible Floridians — 55.3% 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.
Vaccinations in South Florida and Manatee County
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 1,897,985 people, or 69.9% of the county’s total population, are fully vaccinated.
▪ In Broward County about 1,148,097 people are fully vaccinated, or 58.8% of the county’s population.
In Palm Beach County, about 840,471 people are fully vaccinated, or 56.2% of the county’s population.
▪ In Monroe County about 48,432 people are fully vaccinated, or 65.2% of the county’s population.
▪ In Manatee County about 207,566 people are fully vaccinated, or 51.5% of the county’s population.
COVID-19 hospitalizations in Florida
According to Herald calculations of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Tuesday report, there were 10,979 COVID-19 patients reported from 228 Florida hospitals.
That’s 568 fewer patients than Monday’s report from 259 hospitals. In Tuesday’s report, COVID-19 patients take up about 20% of all inpatient hospital beds compared to 20.01% in the previous day’s reporting hospitals.
Of the people hospitalized in Florida, 2,673 people were in intensive care unit beds, a decrease of 123 from the previous day’s report, Herald analyses show. That represents about 40% of the ICU hospital beds at the 228 hospitals reporting data, compared to 42.51% the previous day.
Tuesday’s Miami-Dade County report said there were 945 COVID patients in the county’s hospitals on Monday, an increase of 15 from the previous day’s report. Of the 73 new COVID patients, 55 (75.34%) had not been vaccinated.
Broward County’s Tuesday report said there were 904 COVID patients in the county’s hospitals, a decrease of 31 from Monday’s patient population.
This story was originally published September 14, 2021 at 1:36 PM.
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