Florida sees more than 12,600 new coronavirus cases as Miami-Dade total hits 67,713
Florida’s Department of Health on Monday confirmed 12,624 new cases of COVID-19, the second-highest single-day total recorded in the state since the pandemic began in March. The state now has 282,435 confirmed cases.
On Sunday, Florida reported 15,300 new COVID-19 cases, the most any state has reported in a single day.
There were also 35 new deaths announced Monday, raising the statewide death toll to 4,277.
Confirmed COVID-19 cases in South Florida
▪ Miami-Dade County reported 3,269 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and four new deaths. The county now has 67,713 confirmed cases and 1,143 deaths.
▪ Broward County reported 1,459 additional confirmed cases of the disease and no new deaths. The county now has 31,484 known cases and 464 deaths.
▪ Palm Beach County saw 788 additional confirmed cases and five new deaths. The county now has 21,806 confirmed cases and 611 deaths.
▪ Monroe County reported 39 additional cases of the disease and no new deaths. The Florida Keys now have 611 confirmed cases and six deaths.
Here’s a breakdown on what you need to know:
How many people have recovered from coronavirus in Florida? It’s complicated
Confirmed COVID-19 cases in Florida
One of the tools that officials are relying 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.
On Friday, 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 2:31 p.m. Monday, there are 8,051 COVID-19 patients admitted into hospitals throughout the state, according to the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration dashboard.
Of those, 1,808 are in Miami-Dade, 1,211 are in Broward, 622 are in Palm Beach and 15 are in Monroe County, according to the agency.
Florida’s current hospitalization data does not always match the hospitalization data reported in Miami-Dade’s “New Normal” dashboard. Jennifer Moon, deputy mayor of Miami-Dade told the Miami Herald Friday that there may be a number of reasons why the county’s hospitalization data differs from the state’s.
She said these reasons 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 Monday, Miami-Dade hospitalizations for COVID-19 complications rose to an all-time high of 2,023, according to Miami-Dade County’s “New Normal” dashboard. According to Monday’s data, 137 people were discharged and 236 people were admitted.
The state has had a total of 18,498 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.
The recommended number of daily tests needed varies among experts, but the dean of the University of South Florida’s College of Medicine told the governor that Florida needs to test about 33,000 people every day.
On Monday, Florida’s Department of Health reported 112,264 new tests on Sunday. The positive rate was 12.90% of the total, according to the report. In total, 3,268,471 tests have been conducted.
To date, 2,642,613 people have been tested in Florida. Of the total tested, 282,435 (about 10.69%) have tested positive. The state says there are 1,995 tests with pending results.
The state began adding antigen test results to Florida’s case totals earlier this month. Antigen tests are a new category of tests that detect fragments of proteins found in the virus by testing samples collected by nose swabs. The FDA authorized the first antigen COVID-19 tests in May.
Miami Herald staff writers Daniel Chang and Ben Conarck contributed to this report.
