A day after reporting the fewest new confirmed cases of coronavirus in a day since mid-June, the Florida Department of Health added 2,673 new COVID-19 cases for Aug. 24. It's the third day in a row daily new case numbers were under 3,000.
That brings the total number of cases statewide to 605,502 since March.
The median age of Floridians testing positive for the virus is 44.
The state's reported positivity rate continues to hover below 10 percent after a weekend of seeing the lowest percent positive figures in two months. Saturday's report for Aug. 21 of 4.89 percent among 98,633 tests was the lowest positivity rate for Florida since June 13.
Out of 43,524 test results returned from labs on Aug. 24, 7.49 percent were positive for coronavirus, the first time it's been above 7 percent in five days.
The health department also reported another 183 Floridians had died after testing positive for COVID-19. That brings the total to 10,580 Floridians and 137 non-residents who have died since the pandemic began.
Those numbers do not necessarily mean those most recent people died Saturday 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.
However, 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.
When it comes to hospitalizations, 4,543 people are hospitalized with coronavirus as their primary diagnosis as of 11:45 a.m. Tuesday. Of those, 752 people are in the Tampa Bay area.
A total of 37,038 people in Florida have been hospitalized with coronavirus at some point during the pandemic.
Here's a breakdown of the new coronavirus cases reported to the state:
- June 21: 2,926
- June 22: 3,286
- June 23: 5,508
- June 24: 5,004
- June 25: 8,942
- June 26: 9,585
- June 27: 8,530
- June 28: 5,266
- June 29: 6,093
- June 30: 6,563
- July 1: 10,109
- July 2: 9,488
- July 3: 11,458
- July 4: 10,059
- July 5: 6,336
- July 6: 7,347
- July 7: 9,989
- July 8: 8,935
- July 9: 11,433
- July 10: 10,360
- July 11: 15,300
- July 12: 12,624
- July 13: 9,194
- July 14: 10,181
- July 15: 13,965
- July 16: 11,466
- July 17: 10,328
- July 18: 12,478
- July 19: 10,347
- July 20: 9,440
- July 21: 9,785
- July 22: 10,249
- July 23: 12,444
- July 24: 12,199
- July 25: 9,344
- July 26: 8,892
- July 27: 9,230
- July 28: 9,446
- July 29: 9,956
- July 30: 8,989
- July 31: 9,643
- August 1: 7,104
- August 2: 4,752
- August 3: 5,446
- August 4: 5,409
- August 5: 7,650
- August 6: 7,686
- August 7: 8,502
- August 8: 6,229
- August 9: 4,155
- August 10: 5,831
- August 11: 8,109
- August 12: 6,236
- August 13: 6,148
- August 14: 6,352
- August 15: 3,779
- August 16: 2,678
- August 17: 3,838
- August 18: 4,115
- August 19: 4,555
- August 20: 4,684
- August 21: 4,311
- August 22: 2,974
- August 23: 2,258
- August 24: 2,673
Breaking down the numbers
Florida on Aug. 22 became the second state to cross the 600,000 reported COVID-19 cases mark. As of Aug. 25, California has had more than 665,000 cases. Texas has just under 600,000 cases, according to Johns Hopkins University & Medicine.
On Aug. 9, the United States passed 5 million confirmed coronavirus cases, the highest recorded number in the world, according to the Associated Press. However, Florida has now gone more than two weeks without a daily total of newly-confirmed coronavirus cases above 10,000.
The highest single-day case number Florida has reported so far is 15,300 for July 11. However, Florida has not reported a single-day new case number at or higher than 10,000 since late July.
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 previous record was 257 from the July 31 report.
Florida reported 3,588 new deaths (Floridians and non-residents) just in July. At the time, that was more than 50 percent of the total number of deaths reported by the state.
The World Health Organization and infectious disease experts around the globe have recommended a positivity rate of 5 percent or lower for a 14-day span in order to be comfortable reopening.
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. So far in August, the state has reported a positivity rate above 10 percent five times (Aug. 3, 4, 6, 10 and 11).
The positivity rate reported for Aug. 21 (4.89 percent) is the lowest Florida has seen since mid-June.
Florida remains in Phase Two of reopening, which began June 5.
Hospitalizations and ICU bed availability
Cases are climbing, 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 11:45 a.m. Tuesday, 4,543 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 as their primary diagnosis statewide, and 752 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 37,038 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 10:30 a.m. as of Aug. 25
Citrus:
- 29 COVID-19 hospitalizations
- 62 of 291 total staffed hospital beds are available
DeSoto:
- 2 COVID-19 hospitalizations
- 27 of 48 total staffed hospital beds are available
Hardee:
- 0 COVID-19 hospitalizations
- 1 of 25 total staffed hospital beds are available
Hernando:
- 34 COVID-19 hospitalizations
- 213 of 730 total staffed hospital beds are available
Highlands:
- 20 COVID-19 hospitalizations
- 70 of 258 total staffed hospital beds are available
Hillsborough:
- 232 COVID-19 hospitalizations
- 684 of 3,819 total staffed hospital beds are available
Manatee:
- 33 COVID-19 hospitalizations
- 135 of 779 total staffed hospital beds are available
Pasco:
- 43 COVID-19 hospitalizations
- 365 of 1,403 total staffed hospital beds are available
Pinellas:
- 133 COVID-19 hospitalizations
- 840 of 3,062 total staffed hospital beds are available
Polk:
- 158 COVID-19 hospitalizations
- 333 of 1,659 total staffed hospital beds are available
Sarasota:
- 68 COVID-19 hospitalizations
- 250 of 1,213 total staffed hospital beds are available