MIAMI _ Florida's Department of Health on Friday morning confirmed 371 additional cases of COVID-19 _ the lowest the state has seen since last week. The state now has a total of 39,199 confirmed cases.
There were also 69 new deaths announced, raising the statewide death toll to 1,669.
The number of deaths being reported by the Florida Department of Health does not match the state's Medical Examiners Commission official death count. The health department's overall count is higher, a discrepancy that has left the commission's chairman questioning the validity of the department's data.
Previously, the death counts released by the medical examiner's commission last month was up to 10% higher than the totals released by the Florida Department of Health.
More than half of the known COVID-19 cases are in South Florida's four counties: Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe. Miami-Dade continues to lead the state with the most confirmed cases and deaths. It has 13,664 known cases and 468 deaths.
Despite the daily reports of new cases and deaths, local and state officials have previously said that decreases in the daily total of reported cases are signs that social distancing measures are working.
Officials are also relying on hospitalization data. Unlike testing, which might be limited or take days to report results, hospitalizations can help give officials a real-time visual of how many people are severely ill with COVID-19.
The health department says it doesn't "have a figure" to reflect the number of people currently hospitalized and only provides the total number of hospitalizations in its statewide and county-level data. But, hospitals in Miami-Dade are self-reporting a number of key metrics, including hospitalizations, to the county. Some provide updates every day, others don't.
Based on Thursday's hospitalization report, the total number of COVID-19 patients at Miami-Dade hospitals has decreased in the last two weeks. On Thursday, the county reported its third consecutive day of a dip in hospitalized patients, with a total of 582.
While officials haven't seen a decline in hospitalizations for a prolonged period yet, they say the stabilization is a good sign.
But, because scientists are still working to learn more about the virus, including how many people in the community are actually infected with the disease and have mild or no symptoms, it's difficult to determine what percentage of the cases hospitalizations represent.
On Wednesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis and Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez indicated during a news conference at Hard Rock Stadium's COVID-19 testing site in Miami Gardens that South Florida's restaurants and retailers will begin to reopen soon, a move that has city leaders divided.
The news came a day after Palm Beach County commissioners voted unanimously to send a letter to DeSantis asking to reopen nonessential businesses like the rest of the state, which reopened restaurants and shops with limited capacity Monday.
The first phase of Florida's reopening plan excluded Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, where the pandemic has hit the hardest. The only county in South Florida that was allowed to reopen Monday was Monroe, which has reported fewer than 100 confirmed cases since the pandemic began. Visitors still aren't allowed in the Keys.
Gimenez confirmed during a Friday news conference that May 18 would be the target day to reopen some businesses.
Testing in Florida has seen a steady growth since the COVID-19 crisis began _ with a steady decline in the percentage of people testing positive _ but less than 2% of the population has been tested for the disease, according to a Miami Herald analysis.
Testing, like hospitalizations, helps officials determine the virus's progress and plays a role in deciding whether it is safe to lift stay-at-home orders and loosen restrictions.
And based on the Miami Herald's analysis, the state is significantly behind the amount of tests experts recommend is needed to safely reopen restaurants, movie theaters and other businesses.
The recommended numbers of daily tests needed varies by experts but the dean of the University of South Florida's College of Medicine told the governor Florida needs to test about 33,000 people every day.
The state reached its recommended mark for the first time last Saturday, with 33,597 new tests, before falling several thousands short of it again until Tuesday. It then fell short of it again on Thursday, when 27,888 new tests were reported.
In total, 493,576 tests have been conducted. Of those, 38,828 were positive, or 7.87%. The state says there are 1,499 pending tests. Friday's testing numbers were not immediately available.
But health experts told the Herald last month they were concerned the number of pending COVID-19 tests listed by the state is an undercount because Florida reports only the number of Floridians waiting to get test results from state labs, not private ones _ and private labs are completing more than 90% of state tests.
