Florida COVID update: 5,819 cases added, and a trend of fewer people in the hospital
Florida on Wednesday reported 5,819 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 3,565,971 confirmed COVID cases and 54,071 deaths since the pandemic began.
In the past seven days, on average, the state has added 311 deaths and 5,532 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.
Florida COVID-19 vaccine rates
About 12,263,256 eligible Floridians — 57.1% of the state’s population — had completed the two-dose series of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines or have completed Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine, according to the CDC.
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 1,956,681 people, or 72% of the county’s total population, are fully vaccinated.
▪ In Broward County, about 1,185,152 people are fully vaccinated, or 60.7% of the county’s population.
▪ In Palm Beach County, about 865,226 people are fully vaccinated, or 57.8% of the county’s population.
▪ In Monroe County, about 49,933 people are fully vaccinated, or 67.3% of the county’s population.
▪ In Manatee County, about 214,458 people are fully vaccinated, or 53.2% of the county’s population.
COVID-19 hospitalizations in Florida
There were 6,258 people hospitalized for COVID-19 in Florida, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Wednesday report. This data is reported from 234 Florida hospitals. That is 165 fewer patients than Tuesday’s report. This continues a trend of decreasing hospitalizations.
COVID-19 patients take up 11.41% of all inpatient beds in the latest report’s hospitals, compared to 11.77% in the previous day’s reporting hospitals.
Of the people hospitalized in Florida, 1,611 people were in intensive care unit beds, a decrease of 43. That represents about 24.85% of the state’s ICU hospital beds compared to 25.53% the previous day.
Wednesday’s Miami-Dade County report said there were 538 COVID patients in the county’s hospitals on Monday, a decrease of 48 from the previous day’s report. Of the 53 new COVID patients, 47 (88.68%) had not been vaccinated. Intensive care patients numbered 157, a decrease of 11 from the previous day.
Broward County’s Wednesday report said there were 463 COVID patients in the county’s hospitals, a decrease of 90 from Tuesday’s patient population.
This story was originally published September 29, 2021 at 1:08 PM.
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