Florida health authorities reported 2,470 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, increasing the total number of people infected since the pandemic began last March to 687,909, and the state recorded an additional 99 deaths of Florida residents, bringing the deaths to 13,416.
Florida added fewer than 2,400 new coronavirus cases Tuesday, as the state’s positivity rate rose above 5% for the first time in 11 days https://t.co/4kHcWr7tbL
— NBC 6 South Florida (@nbc6) September 22, 2020
The number of new cases is higher than on Monday of 1,685 additional contagions, which was the lowest since last June.
The number of additional deaths is also higher than reported on Monday of 21 deaths.
Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties, after two consecutive days without reporting additional deaths, recorded 30 and nine deaths, respectively.
This does not necessarily mean that all contagions and deaths have occurred in the last 24 hours. In Florida, deaths announced on a given day could be several days earlier because state information does not include the exact date of death.
The death number of non-residents in Florida stood at 163, according to the Florida Department of Health.
The rate of new positive cases at the state level was 5.88% on Monday, rose to 4.36% on Sunday and is the highest since the beginning of September when it stood at 5.92%.
COVID-19 IN MIAMI-DADE, BROWARD AND PALM BEACH
Miami-Dade County recorded 362 new confirmed cases of coronavirus for a total of 167,515 contagions, and 30 additional deaths for a total of 3,085 deaths. The rate of new positive cases on Monday was 5.56%.
The Department of Health reported that Broward County recorded 143 contagions, for a total of 75,944 cases and 1,328 deaths, six additional deaths. The rate of new positive cases was 3.62%.
Palm Beach had 177 new cases, for a total of 45,602 contagions and nine deaths The total death since the pandemic erupted is 1,286 in that county. It recorded a new positive case rate of 6.74%.
Monroe County had three additional cases, for a total of 1,811 and did not record further incessants. The total death since last March is 22. The rate of positive cases was 7.55%.
COVID-19 HOSPITALIZATIONS
The Agency for the Administration of Medical Services (AHCA), which provides up-to-date information on hospitalizations at the state and condal level, reported that 2,307 people were admitted with “primary diagnosis of coronavirus” in the state until Tuesday at 10:49 a.m.
Hospitalization-related data is one of the tools authorities use to determine the level of contagion.
According to figures provided Tuesday by Miami-Dade’s New Normal Dashboard, hospitalizations in the county rose again from 387 to 388 and the number of patients connected to respirators dropped from 97 to 89.
The average rate of positive cases in 14 days was 4.56%. Miami-Dade’s goal is to keep it below 5%. The daily rate increased from 3.67% to 5.56%.
“This is no time to let your guard down! We can’t afford to back down by s leaving our masks and protecting each other,” Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Giménez warned on his Twitter account on Tuesday.
The Florida Department of Health in turn reported 42,771 hospitalizations since March.
Health authorities said that at the state level 5,139,472 COVID-19 tests have been conducted since March and of that total, 687,909 were positive (13.38%). People who tested negative totaled 4,444,433.
