Some Florida labs report 100 percent positivity rates

The Florida Department of Health released its daily coronavirus testing report showing a statewide positivity rate of 11 percent, but FOX 35 quickly noticed some shocking positivity rates.
ORLANDO, Fla. - After FOX 35 News noticed errors in the state's report on positivity rates, the Florida Department of Health said that some laboratories have not been reporting negative test result data to the state.
Countless labs have reported a 100 percent positivity rate, which means every single person tested was positive. Other labs had very high positivity rates. FOX 35 News found that testing sites like one local Centra Care reported that 83 people were tested and all tested positive. Then, NCF Diagnostics in Alachua reported 88 percent of tests were positive.

How could that be? FOX 35 News investigated these astronomical numbers, contacting every local location mentioned in the report.
The report showed that Orlando Health had a 98 percent positivity rate. However, when FOX 35 News contacted the hospital, they confirmed errors in the report. Orlando Health's positivity rate is only 9.4 percent, not 98 percent as in the report.
The report also showed that the Orlando Veteran’s Medical Center had a positivity rate of 76 percent. A spokesperson for the VA told FOX 35 News on Tuesday that this does not reflect their numbers and that the positivity rate for the center is actually 6 percent.
FOX 35 News went on to speak with the Florida Department of Health on Tuesday. They confirmed that although private and public laboratories are required to report positive and negative results to the state immediately, some have not. Specifically, they said that some smaller, private labs were not reporting negative test result data to the state. 
"The Department immediately began working with those labs to ensure that all results were being reported in order to provide comprehensive and transparent data," a spokesperson for the Florida Department of Health said. "As the state continues to receive results from various labs, the Department will continue educating these labs on proper protocol for reporting COVID-19 test results."
Florida is currently experiencing a surge in COVID-19 cases, reporting the state's daily reported cases have gone from about 2,000 a day a month ago to over 12,000. Then, on Tuesday, state health officials reported the largest single-day increase in deaths yet, as 132 more were announced.
Doctors had been predicting that a surge in deaths would follow Florida’s jump in daily reported cases. The growing caseload is partly driven by increased testing, but a larger percentage of tests are coming back positive, jumping from 6 percent a month ago to more than 18 percent.
Almost all people infected with coronavirus survive, but those who do succumb usually die two or more weeks after they are first diagnosed.
While Florida has broken national records for jumps in cases, the state's death toll is nowhere near the national record. When COVID-19 was ravaging New York three months ago, it recorded 799 deaths on April 9 and had a top seven-day average of 763 deaths on April 14. New York now has one of the nation’s lowest death rates per capita, recording 10 per day over the last week.
The latest report from the Florida Department of Health can be viewed below. It includes the positivity rates per lab statewide.


 COVID-19: summary of persons being monitored, persons tested, and
cases
Data through Jul 13, 2020 verified as of Jul 14, 2020 at 09:25 AM
Data in this report are provisional and subject to change.
Total reports
Total persons of high, medium, or unknown risk High/medium/unknown risk still being monitored
Total tested
Positive 291,629 Negative 2,393,614 Inconclusive
Awaiting testing
Florida residents
Non-Florida residents
Type of testing
Florida residents
Positive by BPHL/CDC
Positive by commercial/hospital lab
Non-Florida residents
Positive by BPHL/CDC
Positive by commercial/hospital lab
Characteristics
Florida residents hospitalized Florida resident deaths
Change in deaths since previous report Non-Florida resident deaths
287,789 3,840
287,789 10,101 277,688 3,840 169 3,671
18,881 4,409 +132 105
page1image1139537360 page1image1139537648
Monitored persons: people the Florida Department of Health was notified of for possible monitoring because they are a contact of a case, traveled from China, or were identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as a part of a airline/ship contact investigation
Cases: people with positive PCR or antigen test result
Total cases page1image1139578400291,629
98,864 95,178 15,024
page1image1139583008
Persons tested: includes PCR and antigen test results received by the Department of Health from the state public health laboratory (BPHL), as well as commercial and hospital laboratories
page1image1139604704 page1image1139604992
2,688,366
3,123 2,057
Hospitalized counts include anyone who was hospitalized at some point during their illness. It does not reflect the number of people currently hospitalized.
More information on deaths identified through death certificate data is available on the National Center for Health Statistics website at www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/COVID19/index.htm.
Risk factors for Florida residents
Traveled
Contact with a known case
Traveled and contact with a known case Neither
No travel and no contact Travel is unknown Contact is unknown Contact is pending
287,789
2,922 77,771 2,846 204,250 28,843 145,875 43,853 128,481
Travel can be unknown and contact can be unknown or pending for the same case, these numbers will sum to more than the "neither" total.