Florida follows deadliest COVID-19 report with record hospitalizations

State health officials show 844 more patients hospitalized with COVID-19, the most reported in a 24-hour period.

With those new hospitalizations, 17,602 Floridians in hospitals have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. That more than doubles the previous record of 380 new hospitalizations set Thursday.

More patients are testing positive because unlike the first wave, patients entering hospitals receive COVID-19 tests regardless of whether they display symptoms. While asymptomatic patients in the hospital for unrelated ailments don’t require the same treatment as those facing COVID-19 complications, they require additional manpower to prevent the virus’ spread.

The Agency for Health Care Administration for the first time Friday began reporting the current number of hospitalizations for COVID-19 by county. That included 6,994 individuals hospitalized with a “primary diagnosis of COVID-19.”

Florida became one of the last states to make data on current hospitalizations available.

State health officials also confirmed another 93 Florida resident deaths tied to COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, putting the state’s death toll at 4,102 as of Friday morning.

That followed a record-shattering 120 new deaths included in Thursday’s update. The deaths reported Friday also top the previous single-report record of 72 set May 5.

However, those people didn’t all die in the last day. Coroners may still be tying deaths from days or weeks ago to COVID-19.

The Department of Corrections and Division of Emergency Management also track non-resident deaths in the state. The agencies revised the non-resident death toll down from 102, which had held constant across the previous four reports, to 101.

Friday’s report also fell short of the previous record for most new cases. Now 244,151 people have tested positive in the state following 11,433 new positives, slightly less than the 11,458 new diagnoses reported on the Fourth of July.

The 11,433 new cases cover residents and non-residents Thursday morning to Friday morning. For Thursday only, the state found 11,385 newly positive residents.

With the rise in cases came a record 95,348 people tested for COVID-19 Thursday and a total of 2.4 million people throughout the pandemic. Among people that were not previous known positives, the positivity rate was 12.8% — a relative low over the past two weeks, but still above the state’s maximum 10% target.

Thursday’s median age of new cases was back up to 40 as more older Floridians continue to test positive.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has pointed to the median age metric to show that the state is keeping at-risk demographics safe. But after plummeting from the 50s to the mid to early 30s last month, the metric has been on the rise again over the past two weeks.

Wednesday’s percent positivity rate, among all people who had not previously tested positive, was a record 18.4%. Over the past week, that has averaged 14.3%.

Florida crossed 200,000 overall cases Sunday. It took the Sunshine State 114 days to record its first 100,000 COVID-19 cases between March 1 and June 22. It took 13 days to record the second 100,000.

With 54 fewer people in adult ICUs at the time of publication compared to Wednesday morning, 5,075 of the state’s 6,013 adult ICU beds are filled, leaving 15.6% available. Data from the Agency for Health Care Administration shows 52 hospitals have reached their adult ICU capacity.

While South Florida remains the largest hot spot, cases are also growing in Central Florida, Southwest Florida and the Jacksonville area.

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Editor’s note on methodology: The Florida Department of Health releases new data every morning around 10:45 a.m. The total number reported in those daily reports include the previous day’s totals as well as the most up to date data as of about 9:30 a.m.

Florida Politics uses the report-over-report increase to document the number of new cases each day because it represents the most up-to-date data available. Some of the more specific data, including positivity rates and demographics, considers a different data set that includes only cases reported the previous day.

This is important to note because the DOH report lists different daily totals than our methodology to show day-over-day trends. Their numbers do not include non-residents who tested positive in the state and they only include single-day data, therefore some data in the DOH report may appear lower than what we report.

Our methodology was established based on careful consideration among our editorial staff to capture both the most recent and accurate trends.