Florida COVID update: 1,296 more deaths. Hospitalizations continue to trend downward
Florida on Thursday reported 12,386 more COVID-19 cases and 1,296 additional deaths to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to Miami Herald calculations of CDC data.
All but 19 of the newly reported deaths — about 99% — occurred since Aug. 11, according to the Herald analysis. About 60% of the newly reported died in the past two weeks, the analysis showed. The majority of deaths happened during Florida’s latest surge in COVID-19 cases, fueled by the delta variant.
In the past seven days, on average, the state has added 338 deaths and 14,276 cases each day, according to Herald calculations of CDC data.
The jump in the number of reported cases and deaths is due to the newest way deaths and cases are counted. The CDC implemented the change in early August, causing occasional one-day aberrations like the 1,064 additional deaths on Monday and 1,338 more deaths reported Sept. 2.
In all, Florida has recorded at least 3,391,158 confirmed COVID cases and 48,273 deaths.
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREThe Herald publishes the number of new COVID-19 cases and deaths reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after each update by the agency.
On Aug. 10, the Florida Department of Health changed the way it reported new cases and deaths to the CDC. Cases and deaths used to be logged as total new cases reported on a single day. Now, Florida is reporting cases by the “case date,” according to the CDC, rather than the date the case was logged into the system. The result of this change is a lag in cases by date and a number of cases back-filling over time.
The Herald will continue to report the difference in total cases and deaths from one day to the next in stories about daily new cases and deaths, as this is consistent with the way data have been presented in daily stories since the beginning of the pandemic.
More information
The Herald is calculating new cases using the difference between cumulative total of cases and the total from the previous day, as pulled daily from the CDC trends data. New deaths are calculated the same way.
As a result, the “new cases” and “new deaths” listed on the CDC site for any given day may be different than numbers published by the Herald for the same day.
According to a statement from CDC spokesperson Jasmine Reed on Aug. 18: “Florida’s aggregate case and death data includes case date for cases and date of death for deaths. The method applies data shared by Florida and to data displayed on COVID Data Tracker. Other States also use this reporting method and states can vary in the reporting method. For example, data as of the date that states submit may be the date that a state received its data from its reporting entities, or it might be another dating method that the state prefers.”
DOH spokesperson Weesam Khoury said Florida’s new reporting system “will ensure that continuous epidemiological analyses provide the most updated data to the public.” Neither agency provided further explanation of how a “case date” is assigned to each new case.
Florida COVID-19 vaccine rates
As of the Thursday report, 11,691,263 eligible Floridians — 54.4% of the state’s population — had completed the two-dose series of Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna, or have completed Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine, according to the CDC.
COVID-19 VACCINES IN SOUTH FLORIDA
The CDC reports that all of the state’s 67 counties have a high level of community transmission of COVID, as of Thursday. Here’s how many people have been fully vaccinated in South Florida, according to the CDC.
▪ In Miami-Dade County, about 1,867,313 people, or 68.7% of the county’s total population, are fully vaccinated.
▪ In Broward County, about 1,130,917 people are fully vaccinated, or 57.9% of the county’s population.
▪ In Palm Beach County, about 829,772 people are fully vaccinated, or 55.4% of the county’s population.
▪ In Monroe County, about 47,731 people are fully vaccinated, or 64.3% of the county’s population.
▪ In Manatee County, about 204,638 people are fully vaccinated, or 50.7% of the county’s population.
COVID-19 hospitalizations in Florida
There were 13,034 people hospitalized for COVID-19 in Florida, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Thursday report. This data is reported from 259 Florida hospitals. That is 418 fewer patients than Wednesday’s report, which also had 24 more reporting hospitals.
COVID-19 patients take up 22.36% of all inpatient beds in the latest report’s hospitals, compared to 24.34% in the previous day’s reporting hospitals.
Of the people hospitalized in Florida, 3,049 people were in intensive care unit beds, a decrease of 8. That represents 46.03% of the state’s ICU hospital beds from 259 hospitals reporting data, compared to 46.2% the previous day.
Thursday’s Miami-Dade County report said there were 1,180 COVID patients in the county’s hospitals on Wednesday, an increase of 90 from the previous day’s report. Of the 112 new COVID patients, 102 (91%) had not been vaccinated.
Broward County’s Thursday report said there were 1,050 COVID patients in the county’s hospitals, a decrease of 36 from Wednesday’s patient population.
This story was originally published September 9, 2021 at 1:54 PM with the headline "Florida COVID update: 1,296 more deaths. Hospitalizations continue to trend downward."
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