Florida reports 2,423 new COVID-19 cases and the fewest deaths since June

The state of Florida’s daily COVID-19 dashboard reported eight deaths, the fewest since June 15, while also reporting 2,423 new, confirmed cases.

While Sunday’s reported case numbers show a gentle downward Sunday slope — Aug. 30 was 2,583, Sept. 6 was 2,564 — Sunday’s death count appears to be even more of an anomaly as the corresponding numbers on June 14 and 15 were.

Tuesday through Saturday, 144.6 deaths per day were reported and three of those days were over 100. In the five days before Sunday, June 14 (six deaths) and Monday, June 15 (seven deaths), an average of 42.6 deaths were reported per day. In the five days after, 41.2 deaths per day were reported.

Because less data collection and entry occurs on Saturday and Sunday than the rest of the week, Sunday’s numbers often are lower than the rest of the week’s.

All eight deaths reported Sunday were residents. Florida’s novel coronavirus pandemic totals are 663,994 total cases, 12,764 total deaths, 12,608 residents.

As for the positive test rates, the state’s county-by-county report says the average daily positive test rate over the last seven days is 5.0% compared to 5.6% for the seven days before that. But the dashboard says the state’s positive test rate remains 13.5% over the entire pandemic.

Johns Hopkins University’s COVID-19 Resource Center calculates the same total pandemic percentage for Florida, but a 12.84% positive percentage for the last week and 13.4% for the last month.

South Florida counties

Note: The Florida Department of Health says that each county’s percent positivity for new cases (people who tested positive for the first time) does not include retests (people who have tested positive once and are being tested for a second time).

▪ The dashboard now says Miami-Dade County, the state leader in cases and deaths, has pandemic totals of 164,086 cases but only 2,880 deaths. That’s 296 more cases, but two fewer deaths compared to Saturday’s dashboard report.

The average daily positive test rate for the last week dropped to 5.2% from 6.7% during the previous week.

▪ Broward County added 161 cases and one death, bringing its pandemic totals to 74,434 and 1,280, respectively. Positive testing ran at an average daily rate of 4.0% this week, down from 3.3 percent the previous week.

▪ Palm Beach County reported no deaths, keeping the death toll at 1,196 and 152 new cases, putting that number at 44,025. The positive test rate actually rose last week to 4.1% from 3.8%.

▪ Similar to Miami-Dade, dashboard incongruity came with Monroe County’s numbers — one fewer case than Saturday. The state now says Monroe has had 1,779 cases and 20 deaths.

Current Hospitalizations

One of the tools that officials rely on to determine whether the novel 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.

The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration reports 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.

At 11 a.m. Sunday, the AHCA report showed a drop of 57 in the state’s current hospitalizations “with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19,” 2,684 to 2,627.

Miami-Dade fell 31 to 416; Broward fell eight to 291; Monroe stayed the same, four; and Palm Beach rose seven to 153.

Florida’s current hospitalization data does not always match the hospitalization data reported in Miami-Dade’s New Normal dashboard. Officials say this could be for a number of reasons, including the frequency of daily updates.

Sunday, the dashboard reported 509 COVID-19 patients in Miami-Dade hospitals, down from 545 reported on Saturday. Intensive Care Unit patients edged up, 161 to 167.

Testing

Florida has tested 4,930,974 people, up 22,251 from Saturday. The overall positive test rate is 13.5%.

People just like you get COVID-19. See the stories and information most relevant to you