Florida COVID update: 667 more cases added to state toll

Florida reported 667 COVID-19 cases and no new deaths on Friday, according to Saturday’s report to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, based on Miami Herald calculations of CDC data.

The Florida Department of Health will most likely add deaths to Friday’s total. The state has done this in the past when it has added cases and deaths to previous days during the pandemic.

The CDC did not release Florida COVID figures on Thanksgiving and Friday causing a seemingly lower 7-day case and death average. Florida has also not reported any new deaths in its last five reports to the CDC, which may be back-filled in the state’s next data dump.

In the past seven days, on average, the state has added nine deaths and 779 cases per day, according to Herald calculations of CDC data.

In all, Florida has recorded at least 3,684,999 confirmed COVID cases and 61,147 deaths.

COVID-19 hospitalizations in Florida

There were 1,272 people hospitalized for COVID-19 in Florida, according to a Saturday report by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, which compiled data from 256 Florida hospitals. Hospitalized COVID patients decreased by 50 from Friday’s report.

COVID-19 patients take up 2.24% of all inpatient beds in the latest report’s hospitals, compared to 2.31% in the previous day’s reporting hospitals.

Of the people hospitalized in Florida, 272 people were in intensive care unit beds, the same reported the day before. That represents about 4.42% of the state’s ICU hospital beds, compared to 4.37% the previous day.