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Florida again reports more than 4,000 new COVID-19 cases in a day

The health department said 5.44% of 80,753 test results were positive for coronavirus.

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TAMPA, Fla — The Florida Department of Health's daily report on Wednesday showed an increase of 4,115 COVID-19 cases for Oct. 27.

That brings the statewide total to 790,426 cases reported since tracking began in March.

Case increases in recent days have caused the statewide 14-day moving average to slightly rise since the beginning of the month. It comes as the United States appears to, once again, enter a new wave during the pandemic.

The state also reported another 66 Floridians had died after testing positive for coronavirus. That brings the total to 16,571 residents and 204 non-residents who have died since the pandemic began.

Those numbers do not necessarily mean those people died Tuesday but rather the state learned of their deaths and added the numbers to the report that day. The state's line-by-line report, which you can read here, lists coronavirus deaths by the date the people tested positive for the virus, not the date they passed.

Credit: 10 Tampa Bay

As for testing, the health department said 5.44 percent of 80,753 test results returned from labs were positive for coronavirus through Oct. 27.

The median age of Floridians testing positive is 39.

The positivity rate is one piece of data health experts analyze to determine how well an area is doing in combating the coronavirus and conducting tests. The World Health Organization has repeatedly said the percent positive should remain at 5 percent or lower for a 14-day span in order for further reopening to be recommended.

As for hospitalizations, 2,336 people in Florida were hospitalized with COVID-19 as their primary diagnosis as of Wednesday morning. Of those, 575 patients were in the Tampa Bay area.

Statewide, a total of 48,722 people in Florida have been hospitalized with the virus at some point during the pandemic.

Here's a breakdown of new coronavirus cases reported to the state:

Credit: 10 Tampa Bay

Breaking down the numbers

For the month of August, daily reported COVID-19 cases in Florida remained under 10,000. And, for more than a week, daily new cases were under 4,000.

That changed with the report for Aug. 31. A backlog* of nearly 75,000 test results from Quest Diagnostics was added to that day's report, which resulted in 7,569 new cases reported. Failure to report those test results earlier, most of which were more than two weeks old, with some dating all the way back to April, caused the Department of Health to sever all ties with Quest, according to the state.

Florida on Aug. 22 became the second state to cross the 600,000 reported COVID-19 cases mark. As of Oct. 23, California has had more than 893,000 cases. Texas has more than 871,000 cases, according to Johns Hopkins University & Medicine.

Since Sept. 1, daily reported COVID-19 cases had stayed below 4,000 until Oct. 16. Florida has not reported a single-day new case number at or higher than 10,000 since late July.

According to Johns Hopkins University of Medicine, the United States has over 8.1 million coronavirus cases, the highest recorded number in the world. By Sept. 26, the United States passed 7 million coronavirus cases, CBS News reported. Just about a month prior, on Aug. 31, the United States passed 6 million coronavirus cases, according to the Associated Press. That was a little more than three weeks after the country surpassed 5 million confirmed coronavirus cases on Aug. 9.

Data for Oct. 10 was not individually released because of a technical issue. The health department on Saturday said the error was because of a data dump of approximately 400,000 previously-reported test results from a private lab. The state clarified Tuesday that the error was a technical issue and not the fault of Helix Laboratory.

The state needed to de-duplicate hundreds of thousands of results, and the daily COVID-19 report resumed on Oct. 11.

The highest single-day case number Florida has reported so far is 15,300 for July 11. The lowest single-day case number the state has reported since early June is 738 confirmed on Sept. 28.

The state's report released on Aug. 11 of 277 newly confirmed deaths was the highest seen from the state in a single day's report.

The state recently added a section to its daily report (on page 5) that shows deaths by date of death. This data has been reported daily on Florida's COVID-19 dashboard. The graph for deaths by date of death is subject to change, though, because the information reported to the state can be delayed up to two weeks. So, for consistency, our charts have stuck to new deaths added by the date they were added. For transparency, you can always reference the state's data here.

The positivity rate is crucial for reopening. The World Health Organization has repeatedly said it must remain at 5 percent or lower for a 14-day span for the agency to recommend reopening.

However, it can be somewhat misleading: The number of people tested statewide varies each day, and the percent positives have ranged from a high of near 7 percent and a low of under 5 percent recently. Health officials say they would like to see a high -- but steady -- number of people tested every day and a suppressed percent positivity figure.

Until Aug. 21, Florida had not seen a positivity rate at 5 percent since the beginning of June. In July, the state reported positivity rates at double and even triple that recommended percentage.

The reports for Aug. 1 and 2, respectively, showed positivity rates below 10 percent for the first time since June 24. In August, the state reported a positivity rate above 10 percent five times.

The positivity rate reported for Oct. 3 (3.74 percent) is the lowest Florida has seen since early June.

On Friday, Sept. 25, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the state could move into what was initially called "Phase 3" of its reopening plan. DeSantis signed an order guaranteeing restaurants the right to operate and lifting state-level capacity restrictions on them.

Credit: 10 Tampa Bay

Hospitalizations and ICU bed availability

New cases have dropped significantly in recent months, but what about hospitalizations?

Tracking hospitalizations got easier on July 10 when the Agency for Health Care Administration began publishing a spreadsheet with the number of people currently checked-in for coronavirus-related complications in Florida. The data only includes people whose "primary diagnosis" was COVID-19.

As of Oct. 28, 2,336 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 as their primary diagnosis statewide, and 575 of them were in the Tampa Bay area. Those numbers are frequently updated, and you can click here for the most recent data, which is also broken down by county.

Since the pandemic began, the state confirms a total of 48,722 residents were hospitalized at some point during their illness.

The Agency for Healthcare Administration (AHCA) also updates total hospital bed and ICU availability by county.

Click here for a breakdown of adult and pediatric ICU bed availability by county. You can also check ICU availability by the hospital.

Hospitalizations around Tampa Bay and total staffed hospital bed capacity status:

**Data as of 11:05 a.m. Oct. 28, 2020.

Citrus:

24 COVID-19 hospitalizations
84 of 321 total staffed hospital beds are available

DeSoto:

0 COVID-19 hospitalization
36 of 55 total staffed hospital beds are available

Hardee:

0 COVID-19 hospitalizations
3 of 25 total staffed hospital beds are available

Hernando:

37 COVID-19 hospitalizations
217 of 735 total staffed hospital beds are available

Highlands:

26 COVID-19 hospitalizations
53 of 259 total staffed hospital beds are available

Hillsborough:

157 COVID-19 hospitalizations
708 of 3,994 total staffed hospital beds are available

Manatee:

25 COVID-19 hospitalizations
104 of 788 total staffed hospital beds are available

Pasco:

47 COVID-19 hospitalizations
178 of 1,353 total staffed hospital beds are available

Pinellas:

127 COVID-19 hospitalizations
883 of 3,151 total staffed hospital beds are available

Polk:

89 COVID-19 hospitalizations
375 of 1,674 total staffed hospital beds are available

Sarasota:

43 COVID-19 hospitalizations
168 of 1,212 total staffed hospital beds are available