Manatee County reports 119 new cases of COVID-19. Florida sets a new single-day record

Manatee County suffered another large spike in new COVID-19 cases, according to the Florida Department of Health on Wednesday morning. Florida also recorded a single-day record of 5,508 news cases.

The Health Department on Wednesday reported 119 new cases, raising the county’s total to 2,132 since Manatee County reported its first case on March 1. It was the second-highest daily count for Manatee, just under the 137 recorded on Saturday.

Another seven cases were reported in the county’s long-term care facilities, bringing that total to 468 cases. Of the 127 COVID-19 deaths in Manatee, 80 have been linked to nursing homes and similar facilities. There were no new reported deaths in the county on Wednesday.

The percentage of positive cases compared to the number of residents tested took another step upward on Wednesday from 6.1% to 6.3%.

There have been 33,747 Manatee County residents tested.

Sarasota County added 60 new cases, bringing its total to 1,091. No new deaths were reported, leaving the death toll at 95.

Statewide, the total case count stands at 109,014. The previous daily high was 4,049, recorded on Saturday.

Hospitalization data

One of the tools that officials are relying on to determine if the coronavirus situation is improving in the state is hospitalization data. Unlike testing, which might be limited or take days to report results, hospitalizations can help give officials a real-time snapshot of how many people are severely ill with COVID-19.

The health department says it does not “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. On Wednesday, 256 hospitalizations were added, bringing the statewide total to 13,574.

While Florida’s Department of Health is not releasing current statewide hospitalization data to the public, hospitals in Miami-Dade are self-reporting a number of key metrics, including hospitalizations, to the county, which has made this data public. Some provide updates every day; others don’t.

On Tuesday, Miami-Dade hospitalizations hit an all-time high for the second day in a row with 818 patients, according to Miami-Dade County’s “New Normal” dashboard data. According to Tuesday’s data, 108 people were discharged and 114 people were admitted.

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.

The recommended number of daily tests needed varies among experts, but the dean of the University of South Florida’s College of Medicine told the governor that Florida needs to test about 33,000 people every day.

Florida’s Department of Health reported 37,402 new tests on Monday in Tuesday’s daily COVID-19 update. The positive rate was 13.19% of the total, according to the report. In total, and 1,944,730 tests have been conducted.

To date, 1,641,863 people have been tested in Florida. Of the total tested, 103,506 (about 6.30%) have tested positive. The state says there are 1,449 tests with pending results.

Health experts have previously told the Miami Herald that they were concerned the number of pending results listed by the state is an undercount. This is because Florida’s Health Department only announces the number of pending test results from state labs, not private ones — and private labs are completing more than 90% of state tests.

Previously, it has taken as long as two weeks for pending test results from private labs to be added into the state’s official count, making it difficult for officials to project the size and scale of the pandemic in the state. It’s unclear how quickly results are currently being sent to the state from private labs, as the turnaround time varies by lab.

Manatee County cases from Tuesday to Wednesday:

• Cases increased from 2,013 to 2,132.
• The death toll remains at 127.
• The median age of those infected is 44.
• Manatee County’s positivity rate increased from 6.1 percent to 6.3 percent.
• The number of residents hospitalized since the outbreak increased by one to 253..

Sarasota cases from Tuesday to Wednesday:

• Cases increased from 1,031 to 1,091.
• Median age of infected is 54.
• Sarasota County’s positivity rate also took a step upward increasing from 3.1 percent to 3.4 percent.
• The death toll remains at 95.

Florida cases from Tuesday to Wednesday:

• Cases increased from 103,506 to 109,014.
• The death toll increased from 3,237 to 3,281.

Surrounding counties:

• Desoto County cases increased from 487 to 513. The death toll remains at 10.
• Hardee County cases increased from 318 to 334. The death toll remains at two.
• Hillsborough County cases increased from 6,176 to 6,892. The death toll increased by two to 121.
• Pinellas County cases increased from 4,033 to 4,387. The death toll increased by three to 132.
• Polk County cases increased from 2,279 to 2,454. The death increased by one to 80.

The Miami Herald contributed to this story.

This story was originally published June 24, 2020 at 11:37 AM.