Florida is closing out the month with a steady rise of coronavirus cases, including 4,115 new infections reported on Wednesday.
It’s the fourth time in the last seven days that the state has reported at least 4,000 new COVID-19 cases. That level wasn’t hit during the entire month of September.
South Florida is contending with more virus spread too, as Palm Beach County’s emergency management boss just called it a “resurgence” with hospitalizations and testing positivity up as well. The numbers are still well below coronavirus pandemic peaks in July.
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The state Department of Health on Wednesday also said another 66 people have died from COVID-19. These fatalities mostly happened in recent weeks but were just reported to the state in the past day.
The confirmed state death toll stands at 16,775, and the COVID-19 statewide case count is at least 790,426.
But the accuracy of the death reporting is in question by federal and state authorities. Florida health officials last week said they are reviewing all pandemic deaths to ensure that the figures are correct, since some doctors are reporting them up to three months after the death.
In addition, a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found the actual number of pandemic deaths could be up to 25% higher by including people who are listed as having died of other causes. By this measure, up to 8,000 more people might have died as a result of the pandemic even if they weren’t infected, or if their infections killed them without being detected.
South Florida
Broward County: 645 additional confirmed coronavirus cases and no more deaths. The county has a known total of 84,983 cases and 1,549 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. The death tally includes 29 non-residents.
Palm Beach County: 243 additional cases of COVID-19 and three more deaths. The county now has 51,415 confirmed cases and 1,592 deaths, including 24 non-residents.
Miami-Dade County: 746 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and one more deaths. The county now has 183,996 confirmed cases and 3,646 deaths, including 21 non-residents.
Testing and positivity rates
The statewide COVID-19 test positivity rate is above 5% by Florida’s two measures of assessing the rate. The 5% threshold indicates the point at which public health experts say the virus is thought to be under control.
In the first calculation, the state reported a daily positivity rate of 5.44% on Wednesday, down from 6.29% on Tuesday. This method of calculating positivity counts new infections only, but also counts repeat negative tests.
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In the second calculation, which includes retests of people who were previously diagnosed, the statewide daily positivity rate is 6.49% based on the latest results. That’s down from 7.77% the previous day.
Johns Hopkins University’s much-watched testing tracker for states changed its positivity figures for Florida, resulting in a near match to the state’s lowest rate. Previously, unlike the state data, Johns Hopkins University counted only first-time test takers in its positivity rate. That put Florida’s rate consistently higher than 10% each day.
Florida health data shows that 6.06 million people in Florida have been swabbed for the virus since March. At least 5.26 million have tested negative. The overall positivity rate in that time is 13.04%.
Florida no longer includes pandemic totals for testing numbers or positivity on the state’s dashboard or daily reports. “The previously reported cumulative number did not reflect the current status of the pandemic in Florida,” a state spokesman said.
According to the state, Wednesday’s case numbers reflect the results of 80,753 COVID-19 tests received from labs in the past day, up from 73,768 results reported Tuesday. These results include people who have had previous tests.
Broward County: Test results for 8,551 county residents were tallied on Tuesday and reported Wednesday, producing a daily positivity rate of 7.39% for people with new infections only. That’s up from 5.75% the previous day.
Palm Beach County: Test results for 4,827 county residents were tallied on Tuesday and reported Wednesday, producing a daily positivity rate of 4.95% for people with new infections only, down from 8.28% the previous day.
Miami Dade County: Test results for 13,518 county residents were tallied on Tuesday and reported Wednesday, producing a daily positivity rate of 5.39% for people with new infections only. That’s down from 5.61% the previous day.
Hospitalizations
The number of people hospitalized in Florida for COVID-19 remained mostly unchanged in the past day.
As of 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, 2,339 people across the state were hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19, down from 2,344 on Tuesday.
In South Florida, Broward County reported 206 patients hospitalized, a decrease of four from the previous day; Palm Beach County had 140, an increase of four; and Miami-Dade had the most in the state with 319, a decrease of 12.
The online report from the state Agency for Health Care Administration updates several times throughout the day. Hospitalizations hit a peak in late July of about 9,500 patients.
Since the pandemic began, 48,722 residents have been hospitalized for the disease, state health officials say.
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Deaths
Statewide: Wednesday’s report shows a total of 16,571 Florida resident deaths. In addition, 204 non-resident deaths have been attributed to the virus.
Florida has the fourth-highest total of COVID-19 deaths among the states, after California, Texas and New York, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Florida’s COVID-19 death rate since the pandemic began is ninth among states, tied with Illinois, at 77 deaths per 100,000 people, the CDC reports. That’s higher than the national rate of 68 deaths per 100,000.
Long-term-care facilities: At least 6,688 deaths have occurred among residents and staff at nursing homes and assisted-living centers throughout Florida. That’s 24 additional deaths in the past day.
Miami-Dade County has reported the highest number of deaths at long-term-care facilities, with 843. Palm Beach County is second with 714. Broward has reported 442 deaths.
National and global view
U.S.: More than 8.8 million people in the country have been infected with the novel coronavirus and 226,982 have died as of 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, according to Johns Hopkins University’s COVID-19 Dashboard.
World: At least 44.1 million people have tested positive for COVID-19 and 1,169,562 people have died from the disease, according to Johns Hopkins. The U.S. has had the most COVID-19 cases and deaths of any country.
The U.S. has 4.3% of the world’s population, but 19.9% of the world’s cases and 19.4% of the world’s deaths.
Marc Freeman can be reached at mjfreeman@sunsentinel.com and on Twitter @marcjfreeman.
