Florida’s Department of Health on Thursday confirmed 10,249 additional cases of COVID-19, bringing the state’s known total to 389,868. There were also 173 new Florida resident deaths announced, increasing the statewide resident death toll to 5,518.
No new non-resident deaths were announced, keeping the non-resident death toll at 114.
The 173 deaths mark the highest single-day death toll announced by the Florida Department of Health since the pandemic began, but it does not necessarily mean that every person died in the past 24 hours.
In Florida, the deaths announced on a given day could be from several days earlier because the state information does not include the exact date of death. Previously, the highest single-day toll was reported on July 16 with 156 deaths.
In early July, when the rate of daily coronavirus deaths in Florida was seeing a noticeable uptick for the first time since May, public health experts told the Miami Herald that the uptick was expected because of the rise of newly confirmed cases in the state.
And because deaths are a “lagging indicator” of infections, usually trailing new cases by several weeks to a month, it can make it a difficult metric to accurately analyze.
COVID-19 cases in South Florida
▪ Miami-Dade County reported 2,723 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 12 new deaths, according to Florida’s Department of Health. The county now has 95,068 confirmed cases and 1,354 deaths.
▪ Broward County reported 1,263 additional confirmed cases of the disease and seven new deaths. The county now has 45,010 known cases and 536 deaths.
▪ Palm Beach County saw 761 additional confirmed cases and 18 new deaths. The county now has 28,267 confirmed cases and 727 deaths.
▪ Monroe County reported 20 additional cases of the disease and no new deaths. The Florida Keys now have 998 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
COVID-19 hospitalizations 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.
Earlier this 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 11:30 a.m. Thursday, there were 9,434 COVID-19 patients admitted into hospitals throughout the state, according to the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration dashboard.
Of those, 1,990 were in Miami-Dade, 1,309 in Broward, 605 in Palm Beach and 20 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. Jennifer Moon, deputy mayor of Miami-Dade, previously told the Miami Herald 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 Wednesday, Miami-Dade hospitalizations for COVID-19 complications decreased from 2,302 to 2,242, according to Miami-Dade County’s “New Normal” dashboard. According to Wednesday’s data, 283 people were discharged and 191 people were admitted.
The state has had a total of 22,644 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.
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 Thursday, Florida’s Department of Health reported 93,644 new tests on Wednesday. The positive rate was 16.12{50531db320f8e8a316d79d6a285e47c71b6e4f6739df32858cb86474d7e720e9} of the total, according to the report. In total, 4,075,056 tests have been conducted.
To date, 3,215,185 people have been tested in Florida. Of the total tested, 389,868 (about 12.13{50531db320f8e8a316d79d6a285e47c71b6e4f6739df32858cb86474d7e720e9}) have tested positive. The state says there are 2,626 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.
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Miami Herald staff writers Daniel Chang and Ben Conarck contributed to this report.