STATEWIDE — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) adjusted a discrepancy with Florida COVID-19 data on Tuesday, though the new numbers still are not the same as those provided by the state.
On Monday, the CDC reported the state saw another record number of new COVID cases. But the Florida Department of Health disagreed.
On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 28,317 new cases in the state.
Numbers from Sunday showed 28,316 people tested positive.
The Florida Department of Health said those numbers were accumulated over "multiple days" and later provided the following figures:
- Friday, Aug. 6: 21,500
- Saturday Aug. 7: 19,567
- Sunday, Aug. 8: 15,319
- 3-day average: 18,795
Gov. Ron DeSantis said on Monday that he suspected that, since the CDC does not report on Sundays and Florida sent in three days worth of data, the federal agency combined the numbers.
Governor on FL DOH criticism in not publicly publishing daily COVID data -- as it could and should.
— Greg Angel (@NewsGuyGreg) August 10, 2021
It did in first peaks of pandemic.
DOH HAS the data. They won't publicly publish it, instead relying on CDC. DOH said CDC published wrong data from weekend. pic.twitter.com/Mp5ZGoeHIL
A CDC spokesperson confirmed to Spectrum News on Tuesday that it was working with the Florida Department of Health to update the cases. It released the following data on its COVID Data Tracker Tuesday afternoon:
- Friday, Aug. 6: 23,958
- Saturday, Aug. 7: 21,487
- Sunday, Aug. 8: 19,584
- Monday, Aug. 9: 15,322
During the first year of the pandemic, the Florida Department of Health released daily COVID-19 case numbers. It switched to weekly numbers recently though, relying on the CDC to track the daily numbers instead.
In the meantime, as more people contract the coronavirus in Florida, more people are winding up in the hospital. On Tuesday, the Florida Hospital Association reported 14,787 confirmed COVID-19 hospitalizations in Florida, about 145% of the previous peak, which was in July of 2020.
ℹ Florida COVID-19 Update for August 10, 2021
— Florida Hospital Association (@FLHospitalAssn) August 10, 2021
🔴 Total Confirmed Hospitalizations: 14,787 pic.twitter.com/T3thlJwHyL
About 3,000 of those patients are in the intensive care units, many relying on ventilators for support.
And officials said that 68% of hospitals are expecting a critical staffing shortage in the next seven days.
A health administration official confirmed that nationally, the federal government sent the state 200 ventilators and a 100 high-flow nasal kits to help Florida respond to this latest surge in COVID-19 cases.
But on Tuesday, DeSantis said he did not know anything about that ventilator request and doubted it was true because he himself had not seen the request.
AdventHealth is reporting that the hospital system has hurtled past its winter surge in COVID-19 with more than 1,000 inpatient hospitalizations.
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