State reports dip in latest cases

Florida reported 11,682 new coronavirus cases on Saturday and another 72newresident deaths linked to COVID-19. The state has now reported 1,193,165 cases since the pandemic began.

South Florida

PalmBeachCounty: 571 additional cases and 0 more deaths. The county now has 76,143 confirmed cases and 1,844 deaths, including 28 non-residents.

BrowardCounty: 1,064additional cases and 5 more deaths. Broward has a known total of 126,402casesand1,798deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. The death

tally includes 30 non-residents.

Miami-Dade County:

2,382 additional cases and

16 new deaths. The county

nowhas272,098confirmed cases and 4,075 deaths,

including25non-residents.

Testing and positivity

Public health experts say the virus is considered under control when the

COVID-19 test positivity rate is under 5%. But since Oct. 29, Floridahasexceeded

5% in its widely publicized calculationforassessingthe rate for testing of residents.

Thestate reported a daily positivity rate of 8.33% on Saturday, down from8.74% thedaybefore. Thismethod of calculating positivity counts new infections only, butalsocountsrepeatnegative tests, which skews the figuredownward.

Accordingtothestate, the newreportedcasenumbers reflect the results of 137,515

COVID-19 tests of Florida residentsreceivedfromlabs in the past day, down from

148,911 results reported the day before.

Palm Beach County: Test results for 8,022 residentswere reported Saturday, leading to a daily positivity rate of 6.91%.

That’sdownfrom7.33% the previous day.

Broward County: Test results for 14,956 residents were reported Saturday, leading to a daily positivity rate of 7.05%. That’s down

from7.25% thepreviousday. Miami-Dade County: Test results for 28,548 residents were reported Saturday, leading to a daily positivity rate of 8.11%. That’sdownfrom8.16% the previousday.

Deaths

The state’s pandemic data report shows a total of 20,473 Floridians have died from COVID-19. In addition, 291non-residentshave died after contracting the virus. Most of the fatalities reportedSaturdayhappened overseveralweeksbutwere just confirmed in the past day.

Hospitalizations

AsofSaturday, therewere

5,092peoplehospitalizedin Floridawithaprimarydiagnosis of COVID-19, according to the state Agency for HealthCareAdministration.

Hospitalizations hit a peak in late July of about

9,500 patients statewide, then dipped as lowas 2,011 on Oct. 19. The numbers steadily increased throughoutNovemberandDecember.