The Florida Department of Health said late Monday that federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data overstated daily case counts from the weekend, numbers that would have given the state record tallies.
The health department, which no longer publishes daily numbers, tweeted that the correct daily case count on Friday was 21,500, Saturday's was 19,567 and Sunday's was 15,319.
The state agency said the three-day average is 18,795.
Those numbers differ significantly from the CDC's count of 56,600 new cases combined just on Saturday and Sunday. The CDC totals of 28,316 on Saturday and 28,317 on Sunday would have been records for daily cases in the state.
A reason for the discrepency was unclear.
The daily case counts for Florida currently posted on the CDC COVID Tracker are incorrect. The current listing states 28,317.
— Florida Dept. Health (@HealthyFla) August 10, 2021
The accurate data are as follows:
Friday, August 6: 21,500
Saturday August 7: 19,567
Sunday, August 8: 15,319
The 3 day average: 18,795
The CDC said deaths related to COVID were 119 on Saturday and 120 on Sunday, bringing the seven-day average to 113. It is unclear from the state whether that number is incorrect as well.
Meantime, for the eighth straight day, hospitalizations in the state reached a record high, with 13,614 Floridians in a hospital with COVID-19, according to the Florida Hospital Association.
Florida continues to be the only state that has more than 20% of its inpatient hospital beds used by patients with COVID. Also, the numbers of COVID patients in intensive care units are increasing; 89% of the beds were occupied.
The surge in cases and deaths is caused by the delta variant of the coronavirus.
Florida hospital officials say most patients who are admitted to the hospital have not been vaccinated for COVID-19.
WMFE's Joe Byrnes, WUSF's Julio Ochoa and News Service of Florida contributed to this report.
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