Florida COVID cases now past 510,000 as the state sees 7,650 new infections
Florida’s Department of Health on Thursday confirmed 7,650 additional cases of COVID-19, pushing the state’s known total to 510,389. There were also 120 Florida resident deaths announced, bringing the statewide resident death toll to 7,747.
There were no new non-resident deaths announced, leaving the non-resident death toll at 124.
Florida has seen a slight decrease in newly confirmed cases in the past two weeks.
Thursday’s daily total of newly confirmed cases is also the fifth consecutive day Florida has reported fewer than 8,000 new cases. Testing also dropped from Aug. 2 to Aug. 4.
From July 21 through Aug. 1, there were an average of 97,000 people tested a day. From Aug. 2 through Aug. 4, there have been an average of 58,000 people tested a day. This excludes retests.
Florida’s Department of Health has not responded to the Miami Herald’s inquiry as to whether the reported testing results were affected by the state-run testing site closures caused by Tropical Storm Isaias.
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Confirmed COVID-19 cases in South Florida
▪ Miami-Dade County reported 1,728 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and nine new deaths, according to Florida’s Department of Health. The county now has 127,677 confirmed cases and 1,784 deaths.
▪ Broward County reported 704 additional confirmed cases of the disease and decreased its death toll by one. The county now has a known total of 60,058 cases and 782 deaths.
It’s still not clear why the toll decreased. In previous instances, health officials have said that a county’s death toll reduction means that the individual was later determined to be from another county.
▪ Palm Beach County saw 454 additional confirmed cases and 10 new deaths. The county now has 35,737 confirmed cases and 892 deaths.
▪ Monroe County reported 34 additional cases of the disease and no new deaths, according to the health department. The Florida Keys now have 1,438 confirmed cases and 13 deaths.
How many people have recovered from coronavirus in Florida? It’s complicated
COVID-19 hospitalizations in Florida
One of the tools that officials rely on to determine whether the coronavirus situation is improving in the state is hospitalization data. Unlike testing, which might be limited or take days to report results, hospitalizations can help give officials a real-time snapshot of how many people are severely ill with COVID-19.
Last month, the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration began reporting the number of patients hospitalized statewide with a “primary diagnosis of COVID.” The data, which is updated at least every hour, does not distinguish between the number of COVID-19 patients in hospital intensive care units and those in acute-care beds, which require less attention from nurses.
Previously, the state was only providing the total number of hospitalizations in its statewide and county-level data. Miami-Dade was an exception, with hospitals self-reporting a number of key metrics, including hospitalizations, to the county, which has made this data public for several months.
As of 1 p.m. Thursday, there were 7,454 COVID-19 patients admitted into hospitals throughout the state, according to the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration dashboard.
Of those, 1,617 were in Miami-Dade, 1,040 in Broward, 454 in Palm Beach and 10 in Monroe counties, according to the agency.
Florida’s current hospitalization data does not always match the hospitalization data reported in Miami-Dade’s “New Normal” dashboard. Miami-Dade Deputy Mayor Jennifer Moon previously told the Miami Herald that there are a number of reasons the county’s hospitalization data might differ from the state’s.
She said they include the frequency of daily updates, human error and whether the state’s agency is including in its data the patients who visited the emergency room for other urgent medical needs and tested positive for COVID after they are admitted.
On Thursday, Miami-Dade hospitalizations for COVID-19 complications decreased from 1,863 to 1,821, according to Miami-Dade County’s “New Normal” dashboard. According to Thursday’s data, 215 people were discharged and 128 people were admitted.
The state has had a total of 29,131 Florida residents hospitalized for COVID-19-related complications, according to Florida’s COVID-19 Data and Surveillance Dashboard.
COVID-19 testing in Florida
Testing in Florida has seen steady growth since the COVID-19 crisis began.
Testing, like hospitalizations, helps officials determine the virus’ progress and plays a role in deciding whether it is safe to lift stay-at-home orders and loosen restrictions.
On Thursday, Florida’s Department of Health reported the results of 104,144 new tests on Wednesday. The positive rate was 11.67% of the total, according to the report. In total, 5,073,879 tests have been conducted.
To date, 3,863,276 people have been tested in Florida. Of the total tested, 510,389 (13.21%) have tested positive. The state says there are 3,325 tests with pending results.
