Yahoo Finance Hospitalization numbers rise sharply as Florida adds 6,587 new COVID-19 cases
Florida’s Department of Health reported 6,587 new cases and 61 deaths on Sunday, while hospitalizations shot up 217 in one day.
The case total breaks a run of five consecutive days over 7,000 new cases for the state, although Sunday numbers usually have been lower throughout the pandemic. There’s usually less data collection and entry over the weekend.
For the coronavirus pandemic, Florida has had 938,414 total cases, 17,991 resident deaths and 18,213 total deaths.
While cases and hospitalizations have been on the rise, the average daily positive test rate actually dropped this week, from 8.20% from Nov. 8 through 14 to 7.63% from Nov. 15 through Saturday.
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South Florida’s confirmed COVID-19 cases, deaths
▪ Miami-Dade County reported 1,746 more people who tested positive and 13 more COVID-19 deaths, putting its pandemic totals at, respectively, 214,943 cases and 3,766 deaths. The state’s county-by-county breakdown says the average daily positive test rate edged up from 8.24 for Nov. 8 through 14 to 8.32 for Nov. 15 through Saturday. It was 7.01 for Nov. 1 through Nov. 7.
▪ Broward County reported another 771 cases and eight deaths, moving its totals to 101,059 cases and 1,626 deaths. Broward’s average daily positive test rate decreased from 7.79% for Nov. 8 through Nov. 14 to 7.30% for the last seven days, but remained higher than Nov. 1 through Nov. 7 (6.60%).
▪ Palm Beach County reported 471 new cases (61,776 for the pandemic), but zero deaths (1,648). And the average daily positive test rate dropped significantly from 8.41% last week to 7.55% this week.
▪ Monroe County reported 21 new cases and one death. Pandemic totals in the Keys are 3,114 cases and 27 deaths.
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Current hospitalizations
Government officials use current hospitalizations to decide the next action in dealing with the pandemic. On the state level, this has been steadily falling over the last month.
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.
As of 3:02 p.m. Sunday, the AHCA said there were 3,613 people currently hospitalized, a tall buildings leap of 217 from 9:30 p.m. Saturday and 495 from a week ago. Compared to Saturday, Miami-Dade was up 42 to 515; Broward was up 37 to 356; Palm Beach was up 20 to 259 and Monroe was down two to nine.
Florida’s current hospitalization data does not always match the hospitalization data reported in Miami-Dade’s New Normal Dashboard. Officials say this could be for a number of reasons, including the frequency of daily updates.
Sunday, Miami-Dade reported 612 people admitted to the hospital from COVID-19, an increase of 29 people from Saturday, but an increase of 74 from a week ago. Fourteen more COVID-19 patients were in Intensive Care Unit beds. That number is at 139.
