MIAMI — Florida's Department of Health on Saturday confirmed 10,431 additional cases of COVID-19, bringing the state's known total to 1,049,638. This is the third consecutive day that that state has added more than 10,000 cases and tops Friday's 10,177.
Also, 90 new resident deaths were announced, bringing the resident death toll to 19,084.
The cumulative non-resident death toll held steady at 242 deaths.
Florida has the third highest number of total confirmed cases in the country after Texas and California, according to The New York Times COVID-19 database.
_Miami-Dade County reported 2,238 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and eight new deaths, according to Florida's Department of Health. The county has a total of 241,051 confirmed cases and 3,896 deaths. Percent positivity for new cases decreased from 8.18% to 8.05%.
_Broward County reported 1,100 additional confirmed cases and three new deaths. The county now has a known total of 112,729 cases and 1,694 deaths. Percent positivity for new cases increased from 7.41% to 7.67%.
_Palm Beach County saw 645 additional confirmed cases and five new deaths. The county now has 68,381 confirmed cases and 1,724 deaths. Percent positivity for new cases decreased from 6.79% to 6.44%.
_Monroe County confirmed 30 additional cases and no new deaths. The county has a known total of 3,545 cases and 28 deaths. Percent positivity for new cases decreased from 12.2% to 8.24%.
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 2:45 p.m. Saturday, there were 4,343 COVID-19 patients admitted into hospitals throughout the state, according to the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration dashboard. This is a big jump from what the state was reporting last month and approaching early August when more than 5,000 COVID-19 patients were admitted into hospitals throughout the state.
Of Saturday's hospitalizations, 761 were in Miami-Dade, 441 in Broward, 258 in Palm Beach and four in Monroe, according to the agency.
The state has had a total of 56,317 Florida residents hospitalized for COVID-19-related complications, according to Florida's COVID-19 Data and Surveillance Dashboard.
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.
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 140,527 people tested on Thursday. The positivity rate of new cases (people who tested positive for the first time) decreased from 7.48% to 7.3%.
