Florida Reports Two Days of Coronavirus Data After Skipping Saturday

Florida officials reported 5,570 new cases of the coronavirus and 180 new deaths on Sunday, a day after the state failed to release similar information for the first time since the pandemic started due to technical problems.

Cases and deaths from Saturday were added to Sunday’s report, according to the Florida Department of Health.

State officials were unable to release data about the virus on Saturday after it received about 400,000 previously-reported COVID-19 test results from a private lab. The massive file from Helix Laboratory forced the state to de-duplicate results and prevented the Department of Health’s automatic reporting system from processing the results, according to a release from the state.

“Importantly, this reporting issue is not related to notifying individuals of their results,” the release said. “Notification is performed by the lab or entity that offered the test.”

Sunday’s report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Florida to 734,491. There have been 15,552 deaths since the pandemic began.

In the greater Tampa Bay region, the state reported 1,137 new cases and 31 deaths.

The deaths were recorded by the state since Thursday’s report, but may have occurred days or weeks earlier.

ABOUT THE DATA: The Florida Department of Health produces a daily update around 11 a.m. with information about COVID-19 cases and deaths that were reported over the previous 24 hours. Cases and deaths in the report may have happened days or weeks earlier, according to state officials. The state separately tracks cases and deaths that occurred on specific days on its dashboard and those totals are frequently updated.

Greater Tampa Bay region positive tests as of Sunday, Oct. 11:

Hillsborough: 44,138

Pinellas: 23,161

Polk: 21,118

Manatee: 12,143

Pasco: 9,831

Sarasota: 8,639

Hernando: 3,348

Florida COVID-19 daily total of positive tests/deaths for the last two weeks:

Oct. 11: 5,570/180

Oct. 9: 2,908/118

Oct. 8: 3,306/170

Oct. 7: 2,582/139

Oct. 6: 2,251/59

Oct. 5: 1,415/41

Oct. 4: 1,868/43

Oct. 3: 2,787/74

Oct. 2: 2,660/111

Oct. 1: 2,628/131

Sept. 30: 1,948/175

Sept. 29: 3,266/106

Sept. 28: 738/5

Sept. 27: 1,882/12

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