Florida on Thursday reported 20,656 more COVID-19 cases to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state also reported 357 new deaths over the pandemic.
The jump in cases and deaths are a sum of many changes to previous daily totals the CDC made Thursday.
The CDC has changed the way it reports cases and deaths in Florida. It now publishes cases and deaths based on the date of occurrence — instead of the date that it was reported to the agency.
The reason is due to the Florida Department of Health submitting a complete renewed set of case data to the CDC every day, including retrospective COVID-19 cases, Weesam Khoury, the Florida DOH communications director.
“This will ensure that continuous epidemiological analyses provide the most updated data to the public,” Khoury said.
As numerous daily totals were changed, Florida’s new highest single day increase of cases was on Wednesday with 24,869 cases. However that total may change in future just as Tuesday’s original daily total of 24,753, which at the time was the highest single day record, lowered to 20,465 on Thursday when the CDC posted its newest data.
Florida’s cumulative increase of 357 deaths on Thursday made up of changes on many days in the past was the highest in pandemic history. Previous records were based on single-day increases. It is unclear if this large increase is due to the addition of outside factors, such as non-resident deaths or a backlog of not yet reported deaths on past dates.
Florida — which makes up about 6.5% of the U.S. population, accounted for 15.7% of the country’s new cases on Wednesday — based on data the state is reporting to the CDC. As of Aug. 11, the state’s seven-day moving average of new cases was 21,210, up from a moving average of 4,072 on July 11. That number represents roughly a 421% increase, stemming from the highly contagious delta variant.
In all, Florida has recorded at least 2,827,469 confirmed COVID cases statewide and 40,539 deaths, according to the CDC.
From July 30 to Aug. 5, Florida reported 134,506 cases, and 175 deaths, according to the Florida Department of Health’s weekly report released on Fridays. There were 24,086 more cases this week than last week, a 21% jump, and the percent positivity increased to 18.9% from 18.4% last week, the report said. High positivity rates indicate community spread.
ABC News