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News about coronavirus in Florida and around the world is constantly emerging. It's hard to stay on top of it all but Health News Florida and WUSF can help. Our responsibility at WUSF News is to keep you informed, and to help discern what’s important for your family as you make what could be life-saving decisions.

Florida Surpasses 50,000 COVID-19 Deaths

graphic that says coronavirus daily report and has image of the virus.

Records now show the state actually crossed the 50,000 death threshold on Sept. 5, but the count didn't reflect that until Sept. 16 due to delays in processing the information.

More than 50,000 Floridians have died from COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's last report.

The agency added 1,554 deaths to the state's total on Thursday, bringing it up to 50,811.

These deaths could have happened over the course of days or weeks.

The state health department sends the data to the CDC, and last month switched from tallying deaths by the date they were verified to the date they occurred. It takes a while to process the information, so a single date's totals can grow days later.

For example records now show the state actually crossed the 50,000 death threshold on Sept. 5, but the count didn't reflect that until today.

The state has reported nearly 10,000 deaths in the last month.

Meanwhile hospitalizations in the state continued to decline. There were 10,247 people hospitalized Thursday with COVID-19 in Florida, with 2,543 of them in intensive care.

The CDC also added another 9,760 positive tests to Florida's case count, which now stands at around 3.47 million.

I cover health care for WUSF and the statewide journalism collaborative Health News Florida. I’m passionate about highlighting community efforts to improve the quality of care in our state and make it more accessible to all Floridians. I’m also committed to holding those in power accountable when they fail to prioritize the health needs of the people they serve.
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