CDC Got COVID-19 Numbers Wrong, FL Department Of Health Tweets

FLORIDA — According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the state of Florida continues to break single-day records of reporting new COVID-19 cases.

On Friday, 23,903 new cases were reported in Florida Friday with 28,316 cases reported Saturday and 28,317 reported Sunday, according to the CDC’s COVID Data Tracker.

Based on these numbers, each day, the state easily beat its previous record for the number of new coronavirus cases reported in one day.

But the Florida Department of Health tweeted Monday that these numbers are incorrect.

“Wrong again. The number of cases (the CDC) released for Florida today is incorrect. They combined MULTIPLE days into one. We anticipate CDC will correct the record," the agency said.

The FDOH also tweeted “the accurate data” for a three-day period. According to the state Department of Health, the following number of cases were reported in Florida:

• Friday: 21,500
• Saturday: 19,567
• Sunday: 15,319

Based on the state’s tweet, 56,386 total cases were reported over three days, Friday through Sunday.

A similar number — 56,633 cases — was reported over just two days, Saturday and Sunday, based on the CDC data.

While the CDC continues to report Florida’s COVID-19 numbers on a daily basis, the state stopped publishing this information every day and shut down its coronavirus dashboard in early June. Now, the state only releases a weekly report on COVID-19 cases in Florida.

According to the most recent FDOH COVID-19 Weekly Situation Report for the week of July 30 to Aug. 5, there were 134,506 coronavirus cases and 616 deaths reported statewide during this period.

The new case positivity rate for Florida this week was 18.9 percent with some counties seeing positivity rates higher than 30 percent, including Bay (30.8 percent), Bradford (33.2 percent), Franklin (31.2 percent), Hardee (30.1 percent) and Okaloosa (30.4 percent) counties.

The state also continues to break hospitalization records. On Monday, 13,614 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 throughout the state, according to the Florida Hospital Association.