Officials report 738 COVID-19 cases in Florida, fewest since June

For the first time since June, health officials in Florida confirmed fewer than 1,000 new COVID-19 cases between daily reports.

Monday’s update included 738 cases confirmed in the 24 hours since Sunday’s report. Overall, 701,302 people have tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, including 8,340 non-Florida residents in the state.

The last time fewer than 1,000 people tested positive between reports was June 2, when 617 people tested positive and before the surge of cases across the Sunbelt was apparent.

The Department of Health typically reports fewer cases on Mondays, on which reports largely cover data confirmed over the preceding weekend.

In total, 5.2 million Floridians have been tested for COVID-19, as have 21,002 non-residents in the state. But DOH received results for 20,991 individuals Sunday, the fewest findings returned since June 1. That day’s results would largely have appeared in the June 2 report.

Officials also confirmed 10 fatalities among residents, raising the death toll to 14,037 plus 170 non-residents.

The new cases cover results returned between Sunday morning and Monday morning. For all-day Sunday, DOH reported 813 positive cases with a median age of 41, the highest in two weeks.

On Friday, Gov. Ron DeSantis opened the Sunshine State effective immediately, lifting all state-level restrictions on businesses. The order does not preempt local mask mandates, but prevents local governments from assessing fines and penalties on COVID-19 rules.

Florida has recorded a positivity rate below 5% in 15 of the last 17 days, coming in at 4.2% Sunday. Some experts say the positivity rate should be below 5% for two weeks before reopening services like schools.

But DeSantis has steered focus away from both the diagnoses count and the positivity rate. Instead, he began underscoring emergency department visits in early August after raising questions about the reliability of complete and timely reporting from private laboratories.

Hospital visits for illnesses related to  COVID-19 have declined 11 consecutive weeks since July 5. That week saw 15,999 visits for similar illnesses while last week saw 3,817.

A similar hospital metric for influenza-like illnesses showed the second week-over increase in three weeks. But a DOH spokesman says influenza-like illnesses typically increase this time of year as cold viruses begin circulating in the first weeks of school. The 2,219 instances reported last week is still below the peak of 6,255 from the week of July 5.

Overall, 43,606 Floridians have been hospitalized, an increase of 73 since Sunday’s report. But the Agency for Health Care Administration reports that only 2,109 people are currently hospitalized, an increase of five in the last 24 hours.

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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, consider 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 nonresidents 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.