FL COVID update: 938 deaths added to tally. State saw lowest 7-day death average in weeks.
Florida on Thursday reported 938 more deaths and 4,781 additional COVID-19 cases to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to Miami Herald calculations of CDC data.
All but 78 of the newly reported deaths — about 92% — occurred since Sept. 2, according to the Herald analysis. About 55% of the newly reported died in the past two weeks, the analysis showed.
In all, Florida has recorded at least 3,570,752 confirmed COVID cases and 55,009 deaths.
In this most recent phase of the pandemic, Florida through the CDC has reported deaths in Monday and Thursday clumps.
In the past seven days, on average, the state has added 272 deaths and 5,612 cases to the daily cumulative total, according to Herald analysis of CDC data. This is the state’s lowest 7-day death average since Sept. 1, when Florida averaged 263 daily 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.
Florida COVID-19 vaccine rates
About 12,301,042 eligible Floridians — 57.3% 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 1,963,060 people, or 72.3% of the county’s total population, are fully vaccinated.
▪ In Broward County, about 1,188,704 people are fully vaccinated, or 60.9% of the county’s population.
▪ In Palm Beach County, about 867,449 people are fully vaccinated, or 58% of the county’s population.
▪ In Monroe County, about 50,031 people are fully vaccinated, or 67.4% of the county’s population.
▪ In Manatee County, about 215,118 people are fully vaccinated, or 53.3% 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 Thursday report. This data is reported from 258 Florida hospitals. That is 461 fewer patients than yesterday’s report, but from 24 more hospitals than the 234 that reported Wednesday. This continues a trend of decreasing hospitalizations.
COVID-19 patients take up 10.02% of all inpatient beds in the latest report’s hospitals, compared to 11.41% in the previous day’s reporting hospitals.
Of the people hospitalized in Florida, 1,512 people were in intensive care unit beds, a decrease of 99. That represents about 23.38% of the state’s ICU hospital beds compared to 24.85% the previous day.
Thursday’s Miami-Dade County report said there were 504 COVID patients in the county’s hospitals on Wednesday, a decrease of 34 from the previous day’s report. Of the 32 new COVID patients, 27 (84.38%) had not been vaccinated. Intensive care patients numbered 153, a decrease of four from the previous day.
Broward County’s Thursday report said there were 522 COVID patients in the county’s hospitals, an increase of 59 from Wednesday’s patient population.
This story was originally published September 30, 2021 at 6:24 PM with the headline "FL COVID update: 938 deaths added to tally. State saw lowest 7-day death average in weeks.."
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