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Last week's run of large increases in Florida coronavirus cases comes after the state changed the way it describes the cases it reports.
On Thursday, July 2, Florida's Department of Health for the first time said test results would include "antigen test results" received from the state public health laboratory, as well as commercial and hospital laboratories.
Previously, the report did not say antigen test results were being included in the total.
Antigen tests - like the PCR test also used as a diagnostic tools - are designed to determine whether someone is infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
They differ from antibody tests, which help determine whether the individual being tested was previously infected, even if that person never showed symptoms, the CDC says.
They detect antibodies against the virus that causes COVID-19, signaling someone has at some point had exposure to the virus - how long the antibodies last in the body, and whether they create immunity from the virus, is unknown.
As before, the state totals include diagnostic tests, called PCR tests, that show whether the virus itself - not the antibodies it triggers - is present in the body.
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After the state announced it was including antigen test results last week, it reported a record 10,109 new cases - a number surpassed only once since, two days later when 11,458 new cases were added.
But, the state has not disclosed how many of the new cases are based on antigen versus PCR test results.
An email sent Monday to FDOH asking for a breakdown of cases based on the type of test has not been responded to.
On Friday, FDOH released a report saying there were 10,831 positive results from commercial laboratories "doing serologic testing for COVID-19 IgG or total antibody (IgM and IgG)."
With nearly 272,000 antibody tests processed by commercial labs, the positivity rate was 4 percent. The data was included in a weekly report that included results through July 2.
The state also produced "point-of-care" antibody results from five state-run COVID-19 drive-through testing sites to determine possible exposure to the virus.
As of June 25, 875 positive results were counted among about 24,000 of those tests, a 3.6 percent positivity rate.
That "weekly" report said the numbers were cumulative and that a new report would be produced every Friday.
As of Monday, no such report has been published for data through Friday, July 3.
Editor's Note: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the antigen test detects antibodies.
