Today, April 16th, Florida saw its third day of relatively low novel coronavirus confirmations since late March. The state has not seen two consecutive days of newly reported cases under 1,000 since March 29.
Wednesday evening, the Florida Department of Health confirmed 891 additional cases of COVID-19 and 43 new deaths statewide since Tuesday night. The state’s total number of confirmed cases jumped to 22,519, while the state’s death toll grew to 614.
The drop in the number of coronavirus cases being reported may be due to Florida significantly underreporting the state’s COVID-19 testing backlog.
The state reports only the number of Floridians waiting to hear test results from state labs, not private ones — and private labs are completing more than 90% of state tests. The state website doesn’t say that its figures exclude the vast majority of pending tests for the novel coronavirus.
Of the 43 new deaths, 29 were in South Florida.
Miami-Dade County saw 11 new deaths since Tuesday night. Health officials reported 14 new deaths in Broward County and four new deaths in Palm Beach County. The 11 Miami-Dade deaths included eight men and three women ranging in age from 47 to 91.
Miami-Dade continues to have the highest number of confirmed cases and deaths in Florida and is ranked 12th in the country of counties with the most coronavirus cases, according to Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.
In Broward, the 14 deaths included eight men and six women ranging in age from 53 to 90
In Palm Beach, the four deaths were two men and two women ranging in age from 45 to 79.
