MIAMI _ A day after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' office said Quest Diagnostics suddenly unloaded nearly 80,000 test results with some dating back to April, the Florida Department of Health reported numbers that were more in line with late August trends and the fewest deaths since Aug. 7.
On Wednesday, the state confirmed 2,402 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 127 deaths.
The number of non-resident deaths held at 147.
Florida's pandemic totals are 633,442 cases and 11,501 deaths.
SOUTH FLORIDA COUNTIES
_ Miami-Dade added 341 confirmed cases and 17 deaths, bringing its pandemic totals to 159,400 and 2,554, respectively. The daily positivity rate is 5.3%, the 15th consecutive day of a goal of under 10%, as stated on Miami-Dade's New Normal Dashboard.
_ Broward's 126 new confirmed cases moved its pandemic total to 72,371. Ten more deaths moved that total to 1,197. The daily positivity rate was 4.6%, continuing a trend of eight days under 5%.
_ Palm Beach County's 131 new confirmed cases mean 42,518 have caught COVID-19 in Palm Beach. Of those people, 1,134 have died, including the six reported Wednesday. Daily positivity rate dipped a shade to 4.2%.
_ Monroe County had five new confirmed cases and no deaths, bringing its total to 1,747 and holding at 16 deaths. Daily positivity rate was 6.41, a bump from 3.75% on Tuesday but lower than Monday's 8.7%.
CURRENT HOSPITALIZATIONS
As of the 11:30 a.m. Wednesday report from the state's Agency for Health Care Administration, 3,519 people were currently hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19, a reduction of 102 people from Tuesday.
The South Florida counties' trends from the last few days continued: Miami-Dade down 29 to 614; Broward down four, to 419; Palm Beach down four to 209; Monroe holding at two for the second day.
TESTING
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. Miami-Dade allowed indoor dining and casinos to reopen Monday _ with restrictions.
Wednesday, the state reported 45,848 people were tested with a daily positivity rate of 5.62%. Through the pandemic, 4,700,822 residents and non-residents have been tested in Florida with a 13.48% positive test rate.
