As coronavirus cases continue to rise, Florida has stopped tracking how many COVID-19 patients are in ICU beds

• The state of Florida announced Tuesday that it won't be tracking the number of coronavirus patients in ICU beds.
• The change comes as coronavirus cases in the state are on the rise.
• One data scientist who helped build Florida's coronavirus tracker linked the move to a larger effort to make it look like the state's situation is improving ahead of the July 4 holiday.
• The state said it's an effort to better track the more serious cases.

Florida was one of the first states to pull back public health orders and reopen businesses in mid-May. Now, as cases continue to surge there, the Department of Public Health has stopped tracking the number of coronavirus patients being treated in ICU beds at hospitals.

The announcement came on Tuesday, after more Florida hospitals started to publicly report that all of their ICU beds were full, according to the Sun Sentinel.

Previously, hospitals were asked to self-report the number of COVID-19 patients in ICU beds, but now they are only expected to report how many patients in those beds are receiving ICU-level care.

The Department of Health told Business Insider Wednesday that the change is in an effort to better track the more serious coronavirus cases, as some hospitals have been using ICU beds for patients who didn't require critical care.

Gov. Ron DeSantis addressed the guideline change during a news briefing on Tuesday.

"What we are getting at is acuity. When people are going into the hospital, we want to know what percent need ICU care and to be put on a ventilator," DeSantis said, according to the Sentinel. "Far fewer need ventilators than what we thought at the beginning. Having lived through this for months, a case today is not the same as a case on March 30."

While the state says the change is an attempt to be more accurate in their data collection, former state data scientist Rebekah Jones took to Twitter Wednesday morning calling the move a "key element" in an effort to keep the state open ahead of July 4.

The number of new cases reported by day in Florida have more than quadrupled since the state began reopening on May 4. Nearly 5,500 new cases were recorded on Tuesday, a new high.

Former state data scientist says the state has tried to manipulate coronavirus data

Jones, once a top researcher who helped develop Florida's coronavirus tracker, said in May she had been fired because she refused to meddle with data related to COVID-19 cases in the state.

The state said her firing followed "repeated course of insubordination," and Jones has since launched her own Florida's Community Coronavirus Dashboard.

On Wednesday, Jones again accused the state of trying to manipulate coronavirus data to make the situation look better than it really is.

"Florida announced yesterday they're not counting the icu bed availability anymore, a key element in keeping things open, so the state can proceed to the next phase by July 4," she wrote on Twitter.

Jones also said multiple Department of Health sources have told her they've been instructed this week to change coronavirus numbers by "deleting deaths and cases" so it looks like Florida is improving ahead of July 4.

The Department of Health denied that was the case to Business Insider.

"It is patently false to say that the Department of Health has manipulated any data," spokesman Alberto Moscoso said in an email.

The change, he said, will not impact the manner in which hospital bed availability is calculated or reported.

Jones' independent state dashboard says that 111,973 people have been diagnosed with coronavirus in Florida between March 1 and Wednesday. The state's dashboard has recorded 109,014 cases.