How Many People Have Recovered From COVID-19 In Florida? Officially, Zero.

April 16, 2020

How many people have recovered from COVID-19 in Florida?

That number is officially zero.

NorthEscambia.com readers commonly ask us why our at least twice-daily data reports don’t include the number of people that have recovered. Officially, we don’t know because the number does not exist.

Each day, the Florida Department of Health releases data about hundreds of new cases, increasing a case total that was at 22,519 Wednesday night. The FDOH data daily increases total in multiple categories, but for the now the numbers do not show the number of patients that have recovered from the virus.

We asked the Florida Department of Health why, and they said there is no accepted definition of what “recovered” means.

“The state is developing new efforts daily as we respond to COVID-19 to keep Floridians and visitors safe and informed about the status of the virus. Currently, there are multiple ways for recovered cases to be recorded and several methods are used by different countries and states. Some states and countries measure a case as recovered when a person has had COVID-19 for more than 14 days, while others upon hospital discharge data – neither of which completely capture recovery of the full COVID positive population,” the FDOH said in an email to NorthEscambia.com.

“The Florida Department of Health will continue to provide information on hospitalizations and deaths to keep the public informed about the threat of the virus,” FDOH concluded.

Comments

16 Responses to “How Many People Have Recovered From COVID-19 In Florida? Officially, Zero.”

  1. Lee on April 17th, 2020 5:26 pm

    @ElijaBell. Leftist agenda? Desantis is a Republican. And he’s trying to keep someone happy. People might feel differently about opening up the state if they had that data. Florida has one of the highest percentages of people over 65, so it’s likely the number of those infected and the number of deaths is higher than they want to report. I think we will be alarmed when we find out. Hopefully, this crisis puts many of those facilities under scrutiny.

  2. David Huie Green on April 17th, 2020 5:25 pm

    REGARDING:
    “An average of 7,500 people die everyday, so that’s 450,000 for 2 months. Why are people making a big deal about this virus?”

    Partly because right now 8,347 are listed as dying today (6,996 yesterday). More than all other deaths from all other causes in the world on average.
    (From https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ )

    Partly because the death rate may soon go up even higher as the virus spreads to other places. Individually because individuals are dying. (Unlike the one who said he wasn’t worried about it when only Chinese were dying.)

    Partly because we dislike needless suffering and dying of friends and family — and even of strangers. (Unlike the one who said he wasn’t worried about it when only Chinese were dying.) These weren’t people who would just have died today regardless. It is killing them and us, mostly us older folks but even children, young people, sailors otherwise healthy.

    And there’s the point driven home that if another one turned up tomorrow, we would be just as unprepared to stop it.

    David for better people, with hearts

  3. Lee on April 17th, 2020 12:14 pm

    One reason for retesting is to help determine if people can get reinfected once they’ve had the virus. The places that have prolific testing will be ahead of the curve. Sadly, the US is busy dealing with conspiracy theories while doctors and nurses are cobbling together medical supplies. With the number of retirees in Florida, we need to get this right. While even some elected officials are ready to open up the state for the economy’s sake, we aren’t even getting stats on nursing homes, etc. Our state’s economy relies heavily on retirees and tourism. We need to protect both by proceeding cautiously. That requires much more testing.

  4. BILLY RAY on April 17th, 2020 9:53 am

    An average of 7,500 people die everyday, so that’s 450,000 for 2 months. Why are people making a big deal about this virus?

  5. Amazed on April 17th, 2020 6:53 am

    Frank, do you think in the last month that only 8 people in Escambia and Santa Rosa county have died period? If any natural cause death is listed as Covid-19 don’t you think those numbers would be much higher. Sometimes you just have to think logically before you speak.

  6. Nancy Sprenz on April 16th, 2020 3:08 pm

    Why can’t we send trained people to pregnant mother’s homes to safely give birth at home so baby and mother are safe and sound?

  7. FRANK on April 16th, 2020 1:59 pm

    Normal flu death went down

  8. David Huie Green on April 16th, 2020 1:11 pm

    REGARDING:
    “I heard people aren’t dying from natural causes, heart attack, etc. anymore. Now its just covid-19″

    You heard wrong. My aunt died of an aneurysm unrelated to COVID-19.

    David for truth and healthy people

  9. David Huie Green on April 16th, 2020 1:06 pm

    These comments are confusing. It is hard to tell from them if SARS-CoV-2 is right-wing or left-wing, just that it must be one or the other.

  10. Jon on April 16th, 2020 11:25 am

    You dont really need to retest. Just go ask people. We can assume that a significant number of the 10,000 people who tested positive a couple weeks ago are fine now. Ill volunteer to follow up with the 200 cases in my county and preserve their privacy. Just give me the names.

  11. J-Dub on April 16th, 2020 11:05 am

    As of right now retesting is not an option. This is a worldwide pandemic and there are a shortage of test. I agree though that some sort of system needs to be put in place to try and somewhat keep track of recovered cases.

  12. Roger on April 16th, 2020 10:42 am

    Great article. It is time we began asking serious questions about this issue. The total number of cases is important but we do need to know how many have recovered (any case older than three weeks) as this will help determine the infection rate, which will help determine when we can re-open the state and go back to work. Please keep asking these questions.

  13. Molino on April 16th, 2020 8:47 am

    Or even better, retest. They’re turning people away who need to be tested anyway, so retest the ones who were positive. Not sure what other way there is to be sure that they’re better?

  14. pencil on April 16th, 2020 8:44 am

    Not having that number seems reasonable considering we still don’t know whether those officially “recovered” from this unknown virus haven’t just had it go dormant until a week later when their body conditions change like the measles and HIV.

    Who is going to take the time to follow up on accurate patient health and outcomes when so many new cases are coming through the door? When we get a reliable vaccine in front of us and some semblance of testing as easy as buying a burger, we can start changing the routine & formulas.

    That or we can continue the right wing agenda of getting everyone infected. The next 3 weeks, Florida is getting hit hard . . . . don’t believe it, step outside now and tell the virus its just a hoax, just the flu and you’re willing to take one for the team in the name of party and country.

  15. FRANK on April 16th, 2020 7:54 am

    I heard people aren’t dying from natural causes, heart attack, etc. anymore. Now its just covid-19

  16. Elijah Bell on April 16th, 2020 7:18 am

    Boy this sure raises questions about the ability of the FDOH. Seems to me like they are playing to a leftest agenda. They could have two list one for hospital releases and one for the 14 day stay at home group.