Florida COVID update: 9,806 more cases reported, hospitalizations decline
Florida on Saturday reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 9,806 more COVID-19 cases and eight deaths, according to Miami Herald calculations of CDC data.
In all, Florida has recorded at least 3,494,954 confirmed COVID cases and 50,825 deaths since the pandemic began. On Thursday, the state surged past 50,000 deaths.
In the past seven days, on average, the state has added 363 deaths and 10,971 cases per day, according to Herald calculations of CDC data. The 363 deaths, reported Saturday by the state, tie with Florida’s second-highest seven-day death average per day when tallying deaths by the date when they were reported. The highest number of deaths occurred on Sept. 4, with a seven-day average of 373 deaths per day.
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
About 11,992,505 eligible Floridians — 55.8% of the state’s population — had completed the two-dose series of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines or have completed Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine, according to the CDC.
Vaccinations in South Florida and Manatee County
The CDC reported that every county’s level of community transmission was high. Here’s how many people have been fully vaccinated in South Florida, according to the CDC.
▪ In Miami-Dade County, about 1,916,505 people, or 70.5% of the county’s total population, are fully vaccinated.
▪ In Broward County, about 1,160,579 people are fully vaccinated, or 59.4% of the county’s population.
▪ In Palm Beach County, about 847,921 people are fully vaccinated, or 56.7% of the county’s population.
▪ In Monroe County, about 48,961 people are fully vaccinated, or 66% of the county’s population.
▪ In Manatee County, about 209,667 people are fully vaccinated, or 52% of the county’s population.
COVID-19 hospitalizations in Florida
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Saturday report showed there were 9,393 COVID-19 patients reported from 257 Florida hospitals.
That’s 192 fewer patients than Friday’s report from 253 hospitals. In Saturday’s report, COVID-19 patients occupied 16.11% of all inpatient hospital beds, compared with 16.51% in the previous day’s reporting hospitals.
This number is based on 257 hospitals reporting 9,393 inpatient beds in use for COVID-19 patients and 58,321 total inpatient beds.
Of the people hospitalized in Florida, 2,381 people were in intensive-care units, a decrease of 62 from the previous day’s report, Herald analyses show. That represents 36.57% of the ICU beds at the 257 hospitals reporting data, compared to 37.71% the previous day.
This number is based on 257 hospitals reporting 2,381 ICU beds in use for COVID-19 patients and 6,510 total ICU beds.
Saturday’s Miami-Dade County report said there were 730 COVID patients in the county’s hospitals on Friday, a decrease of 24 from the previous day’s report. Of the 62 new COVID patients, 54 (87.1%) had not been vaccinated.
This story was originally published September 18, 2021 at 1:47 PM with the headline "Florida COVID update: 9,806 more cases reported, hospitalizations decline."
