MIAMI — Florida's Department of Health on Saturday confirmed 4,544 new cases of COVID-19 and Miami-Dade's surge puts the county over 200,000 cases. The state now has 875,096 confirmed cases, the third-highest state in the country, after Texas and California, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Also, Florida announced 44 resident deaths, bringing the resident death toll to 17,489. One new non-resident death was also announced, bringing the non-resident toll to 215.
Though Saturday's count was lower than Friday's 6,933 new cases — the highest single-day count since Aug. 12 when Florida added 8,109 cases, excluding the Sept. 1 Quest Diagnostics data dump of 7,569 single-day cases — testing was also down due to the lingering floods of Tropical Storm Eta.
Most South Florida coronavirus testing sites reopened Tuesday and Thursday after Eta drenched the area and brought tropical storm force winds.
— Miami-Dade County reported 1,187 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and one new death, according to Florida's Department of Health. The cases declined from Friday's 1,876 but Saturday's figure brings the county total to 200,259 confirmed cases and 3,707 deaths.% positivity for new cases increased from 9.16% to 9.53%. The 14-day% positivity average was 7.36%, according to Miami-Dade County's "New Normal" Dashboard.
— Broward County reported 354 additional confirmed cases and four new deaths. The county now has a known total of 93,868 cases and 1,535 deaths.% positivity for new cases decreased from 8.88% to 8.68%.
— Palm Beach County saw 300 additional confirmed cases and two new deaths. The county now has 57,661 confirmed cases and 1,622 deaths.% positivity for new cases increased from 8.99% to 10.09%.
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 takes 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.
Previously, the state was providing only 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 10:30 a.m. Saturday, there were 3,150 COVID-19 patients admitted into hospitals throughout the state, according to the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration dashboard. The numbers are surging though this is a decrease from early August, when more than 5,000 COVID-19 patients were admitted into hospitals throughout the state.
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.
On Saturday, Miami-Dade hospitalizations for COVID-19 complications increased from 531 to 545, according to Miami-Dade County's "New Normal" dashboard. According to Saturday's data, 85 people were discharged and 65 people were admitted.
The state has had a total of 51,813 Florida residents hospitalized for COVID-19-related complications, according to Florida's COVID-19 Data and Surveillance Dashboard.
COVID-19 TESTING IN FLORIDA
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.
Epidemiologists use the testing data to create a positivity rate. The rate helps them determine if a rise in cases is because of an increase in testing or whether there's increased transmission of the virus in the community.
On Saturday, Florida's Department of Health reported the results of 45,072 people tested on Friday. The positivity rate of new cases (people who tested positive for the first time) increased from 7.95% to 9.88%.
