TAMPA, Fla. — In its New Year's Eve report, the Florida Department of Health added a single-day record number of coronavirus cases for Dec. 30. The state added 17,192 positive test results to its previous total.
A total of 1,323,315 people in Florida have tested positive for coronavirus since the pandemic began.
At the beginning of December, Florida became the third state to report more than 1 million cases, after California and Texas. In November alone, Florida reported 200,753 cases of COVID-19 -- which at the time was nearly 20 percent of the total number of cases in the state since March.
In just 30 days in December, Florida added 315,149 new cases of COVID-19, more than the entire month of November.
On Thursday, the state also reported another 127 Floridians and six non-residents had died after testing positive for COVID-19. That brings the total to 21,673 residents and 317 non-residents who have died since the pandemic began -- a total of 21,990 deaths in the state related to the virus.
Those numbers do not necessarily mean those people died Wednesday, but rather the state learned of their deaths and added the number 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.
As for testing, the health department reported 11.57 percent of 166,439 test results returned from labs were positive for coronavirus through Dec. 30.
The Florida Department of Health warned the heightened percent positive rate on Dec. 28 of 22.75 percent should be taken with a grain of salt due to reduced hours and closures at doctor's offices, public testing sites and laboratories this holiday season.
"These reduced hours and closures have resulted in less people tested and delays in result processing and reporting which have impacted Florida’s daily testing number by nearly half," the DOH explained in an email. "As we continue to experience office closures and holidays through January 4, 2021, it is possible that data may continue to be impacted over the coming days."
The median age of Floridians testing positive is 42.
As for hospitalizations, 6,353 people in Florida were hospitalized with coronavirus as their primary diagnosis as of Thursday morning. Of those, 1,480 patients were in the Tampa Bay area.
Statewide, a total of 62,868 people in Florida were hospitalized with the virus at some point during the pandemic.
Here's a breakdown of new coronavirus cases reported to the state in December:
- December 1: 9,994
- December 2: 10,870
- December 3: 10,177
- December 4: 10,431
- December 5: 8,436
- December 6: 7,711
- December 7: 7,985
- December 8: 9,592
- December 9: 11,335
- December 10: 11,699
- December 11: 10,577
- December 12: 8,958
- December 13: 8,452
- December 14: 9,411
- December 15: 11,541
- December 16: 13,148
- December 17: 13,000
- December 18: 11,682
- December 19: 8,401
- December 20: 11,015
- December 21: 10,434
- December 22: 11,384
- December 23: 13,147
- December 24: Report not released due to Christmas
- December 25: 17,042
- December 26: 7,391
- December 27: 8,198
- December 28: 12,075
- December 29: 13,871
- December 30: 17,192
Understanding the numbers
Since mid-July, daily reported COVID-19 cases in Florida remained under 10,000. And, between Sept. 1 and Oct. 16, daily reported cases stayed below 4,000.
That changed on Nov. 15, when the state reported 10,105 new cases for the day prior.
The highest single-day case number Florida has reported so far is 17,192 for Dec. 31. The report released on Nov. 27 of 17,345 newly-reported cases is higher, but that reported combined updates for Nov. 25 and Nov. 26.
The lowest single-day case number the state has reported since early June is 738 confirmed on Sept. 28.
On Oct. 30, Florida became the third state to cross the 800,000 reported COVID-19 cases mark. Then on Dec. 1, Florida became the third state to surpass 1 million confirmed cases. As of Dec. 31, California and Texas have 2.3 and 1.8 million cases, respectively, according to Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.
According to Johns Hopkins University of Medicine, the United States has more than 19 million coronavirus cases as of Dec. 31, the highest recorded number in the world.
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 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. Health officials say they would like to see a high -- but steady -- number of people tested every day and a suppressed percent positivity figure.
Florida has been in "Phase 3" of reopening since Sept. 25, when Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an order guaranteeing restaurants the right to operate and lifting state-level capacity restrictions on them.
Hospitalizations and ICU bed availability
New cases have risen 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 Dec. 31, 6,353 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 as their primary diagnosis statewide, and 1,480 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 62,868 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 11:00 a.m. Dec. 31, 2020.
Citrus:
- 60 COVID-19 hospitalizations
- 71 of 300 total staffed hospital beds are available
DeSoto:
- 7 COVID-19 hospitalizations
- 32 of 58 total staffed hospital beds are available
Hardee:
- 0 COVID-19 hospitalizations
- 2 of 26 total staffed hospital beds are available
Hernando:
- 70 COVID-19 hospitalizations
- 176 of 726 total staffed hospital beds are available
Highlands:
- 53 COVID-19 hospitalizations
- 38 of 261 total staffed hospital beds are available
Hillsborough:
- 392 COVID-19 hospitalizations
- 754 of 4,143 total staffed hospital beds are available
Manatee:
- 68 COVID-19 hospitalizations
- 107 of 776 total staffed hospital beds are available
Pasco:
- 181 COVID-19 hospitalizations
- 224 of 1,443 total staffed hospital beds are available
Pinellas:
- 298 COVID-19 hospitalizations
- 758 of 3,127 total staffed hospital beds are available
Polk:
- 223 COVID-19 hospitalizations
- 308 of 1,694 total staffed hospital beds are available
Sarasota:
- 128 COVID-19 hospitalizations
- 149 of 1,265 total staffed hospital beds are available
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