Florida COVID update: 5,056 cases added and new county death tolls released
Florida on Tuesday reported 5,056 more COVID-19 cases and four deaths to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to Miami Herald calculations of CDC data.
In all, Florida has recorded at least 3,560,152 confirmed COVID cases and 54,067 deaths since the pandemic began.
In the past seven days, on average, the state has added 311 deaths and 6,139 cases per day, 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.
COVID Deaths in South Florida and Manatee County
The CDC’s Community Profile Report released county-level death data for Florida’s 67 counties.
It is unclear when these newly reported deaths occurred. The Community Profile Report updates Florida’s county death tolls and rates about once every seven days, on or after the COVID-19 weekly situation report is published by the Florida Department of Health on Fridays.
As of Monday’s Community Profile Report, the most recent, Florida had a death rate of 252 cumulative deaths per 100,000 people since the start of the pandemic. Two weeks ago, the state had a death rate of 229 deaths per 100,000 people.
Here’s where death rates and tolls stand in South Florida and Manatee, according to the CDC.
▪ Miami-Dade County’s death toll sits at 8,280, an increase of 346 deaths from the CDC’s last report. That’s a rate of 305 cumulative deaths per 100,000 people since the beginning of the pandemic.
▪ Broward County’s death toll sits at 4,402, an increase of 141 deaths from the CDC’s last report. That’s a rate of 225 cumulative deaths per 100,000 people since the beginning of the pandemic.
▪ Palm Beach County’s death toll sits at 3,850, an increase of 142 deaths from the CDC’s last report. That’s a rate of 257 cumulative deaths per 100,000 people since the beginning of the pandemic.
▪ Monroe County’s death toll sits at 78, an increase of five deaths from the CDC’s last report. The county would be at a death rate of 105 deaths per 100,000 people if its population were that large.
▪ Manatee County’s death toll sits at 884, an increase of 39 deaths from the CDC’s last report. That’s a rate of 219 cumulative deaths per 100,000 people since the beginning of the pandemic.
Vaccinations in South Florida and Manatee County
The CDC reported that every county’s level of community transmission was high. Here’s how many people have been fully vaccinated in South Florida, according to the CDC.
▪ In Miami-Dade County, about 1,956,622 people, or 72% of the county’s total population, are fully vaccinated.
▪ In Broward County, about 1,185,119 people are fully vaccinated, or 60.7% of the county’s population.
▪ In Palm Beach County, about 865,190 people are fully vaccinated, or 57.8% of the county’s population.
▪ In Monroe County, about 49,931 people are fully vaccinated, or 67.3% of the county’s population.
▪ In Manatee County, about 214,449 people are fully vaccinated, or 53.2% of the county’s population.
COVID-19 hospitalizations in Florida
There were 6,423 people hospitalized for COVID-19 in Florida, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Tuesday report. This data is reported from 234 Florida hospitals. That is 308 fewer patients than yesterday’s report, but also from 26 fewer reporting hospitals than the 260 on Monday. This continues a trend of decreasing hospitalizations.
COVID-19 patients take up 11.77% of all inpatient beds in the latest report’s hospitals, compared to 11.74% in the previous day’s reporting hospitals.
Of the people hospitalized in Florida, 1,654 people were in intensive care unit beds, a decrease of 111. That represents about 25.53% of the state’s ICU hospital beds compared to 27.2% the previous day.
Tuesday’s Miami-Dade County report said there were 586 COVID patients in the county’s hospitals on Sunday, an increase of 21 from the previous day’s report. Of the 59 new COVID patients, 47 (79.66%) had not been vaccinated. Intensive care patients numbered 157, a decrease of 12 from the previous day.
Broward County’s Tuesday report said there were 553 COVID patients in the county’s hospitals, a decrease of 37 from Monday’s patient population.
This story was originally published September 28, 2021 at 2:26 PM with the headline "Florida COVID update: 5,056 cases added and new county death tolls released."
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