'Flu-like' data might help track coronavirus spread. Why did Florida stop publishing it?

While positive flu tests in Florida declined as expected, hospital emergency rooms simultaneously reported a spike in patients complaining of flu-like symptoms. But in late March, as state officials struggled to expand testing for the novel coronavirus, the Florida Department of Health quietly decided to stop posting the data in its weekly surveillance reports — a move that experts told the Miami Herald could obscure the pandemic’s true impact on the state.