Fla. positivity rate tops 5% for first time in two weeks
A key indicator for COVID-19 spread — the testing positivity rate— is at its highest level in Florida in the last two weeks. This daily figure is 5.26%, according to a state report Tuesday.
At the same time, Gov. RonDeSantis introduced an expansion of rapid testing for the disease mostly focused on vulnerable senior citizen communities, longterm care facilities, and schools. Results from a quick nasal swab are available in about15 minutes.
In South Florida, the four Century Village complexes in Pembroke Pines, Deerfield Beach, West Boca and West Palm Beach will be among the first to get the antigen tests by the end of the week, the governor said during a news conference at The Villages, north of Orlando.
“We believe that this will help give themmore tools to be able to protect the residents who live there,” DeSantis said. “So we’re excited about this. We think it’s something that can really make a difference.”
State officials plan to distribute about 400,000 rapid tests a week, from a free supply of 6.4 million tests for Florida, provided by the federal government. The test is the BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag Card from Abbott Laboratories.
This week, the state has earmarked 180,000 of the tests for senior communities, 100,000 tests for nursing homes and assisted-living facilities, 60,000 tests for schools, and60,000tests for state-run COVID-19 testing sites, DeSantis said.
Senior communities can request a shipment of the tests by sending an email to rapidtestforseniors@ Participants will receive a response for a survey to be filled out and submitted to the state Division of EmergencyManagement.
Having rapid tests “can helpprovidean ability to get quick test results if you’re doing some type of event amongst the seniors, maybe they want to have that option when people come and visit their family, you’d have an option to be able to have aquick test result,” DeSantis said.
He added that along with practicing goodhygiene, the testing will help “allowseniors to be able to live and enjoy life.”
Asked about the accuracy of the tests, which don’t need to be evaluated by a lab, the governor said, “None of these tests are a 100%. It’s just the reality. None of it’s foolproof. What I think this test will do, if you have live virus, it will pick it up. And if you’re positive on this then you will knowthat not only have you been infected but you’re actually carrying the virus at that point.”
The state’s Department of Health’s coronavirus pandemic report for Tuesday shows the daily rate of tests coming back positive, for new infections only, was up from 3.89% the previous day.
Increases in positivity also were listed across South Florida. The daily rates are 3.61% for Broward County, up from 2.05% the day before; 3.95% for Palm Beach County, up from 3.01%; and6.05% forMiamiDade County, up from 3.04%.
Public health experts say the disease is generally under controlwhenthe rate is below 5%. And that’s where it was in Florida for 12 days in a row before Tuesday. It was 5.27% on Sept. 22, records show.
The state’s positivity figure does not count results for people who previously tested positive for the disease.
Florida logged 46,940 COVID-19 test results in the previous day, including people who have had previous tests. That’s up from 38,830 results the day before, but still belowthe 77,607 results recorded Oct. 1.
Other tallies show a higher positivity rate depending on the source and method. For example, Johns Hopkins University, which doesn’t exclude repeated results for the same individual, reported Florida’s daily positivity rate to be 9%.
Meanwhile, another 2,251 people became infected with COVID-19 and another 59 people have died from the disease, according to the state Department of Health.
Most of the deaths listed onthe state’sdaily statistical reports did not happen in the last 24 hours. There is usually a lag of several weeks between the date of death and confirmation as a virus fatality. Test results also take days to be tabulated.
The new cases bring the statewide total to 720,125 and the total number of deaths to 14,945. The fatalities include 178 non-Florida residents.
South Florida
Broward County: 124 additional confirmed coronavirus cases were reportedTuesday. The county has tallied a total of 78,136 cases and 1,455 deaths. That’s six more deaths than the day before. Miami-Dade County: 451 additional casesand15more fatalities were reported Tuesday. The county has had a pandemic total of 172,849 cases and 3,369 deaths.
Palm Beach County: 91 additional cases of COVID-19 were reportedTuesday. The county has had 47,244 cases and 1,418 deaths. Two more deaths were reported since Monday.
Health director Dr. Alina Alonso told the Palm Beach County Commission that shewas pleased with steady downward trends in new cases, positivity rates, hospitalizations and deaths over the past threeweeks.
But she noted statistics showing that the median age of all positive cases has increased; it was 45 on Monday and 43 in Tuesday’s results.
The median age for daily new cases had been in the mid- to upper-30s for most of the past two weeks. The median means that half of the cases were people aged younger and half were older. Alonso also said she’s observed an uptick in the number of children between the ages of 5 and 14 who have tested positive.
Testing and positivity rates
More than 5.44 million people have been tested in Florida since the pandemic began, producing an overall positivity rate of 13.24%, state data show. At least 720,125 people have tested positive and 4.71 million have tested negative.
In South Florida, the cumulative positivity rates are 18.4% for Miami-Dade County, 13.43% for Broward County and12.52% for Palm Beach County.
As of Tuesday, 939,167 people have been swabbed in Miami-Dade, 581,911 people have been tested in Broward and 377,463 have been tested forCOVID-19 in Palm Beach County.
Hospitalizations
The number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 has been rising since Saturday while remaining far below peak numbers of more than 9,000 patients in July.
As of 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, there were 2,151 people in hospitals across the state with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19. That’s 41 more thanMonday.
Broward County reported 217 patients, 13 more than the day before; Palm Beach County had 96, which was unchanged; and Miami-Dade had the most in the state with 281, an increase of 14.
The online report from the state Agency for Health Care Administration updates several times throughout the day.
Since the pandemic began, a total of 45,004 residents have been hospitalized for the disease in Florida, according to a separate report by the state health department.
Deaths
Statewide: The official COVID-19 report, updated Tuesday, shows 14,767 Florida resident deaths. In addition, 178 non-resident deaths have been attributed to the virus in the state. The state does not say whether the victims had underlying health conditions.
Florida’s COVID-19 death rate is 11th among states, with 69 deaths per 100,000 people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s higher than the national rate of 63 deaths per 100,000 people. Long-term care facilities: At least 6,001 deaths have occurred among residents and staff at nursing homes and assisted-living centers throughout Florida. That’s 12more than reportedMonday.
Miami-Dade County has had the highest number of deaths at long-term care facilities, with 809 and Palm Beach County was second with 611. Broward has had 413 deaths.
National and global view
U.S.: Almost 7.5 million people in the country have been infected with the novel coronavirus and 210,487 are knownto have died as of about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center.
World: At least 35.6 million people have tested positive for COVID-19 and 1,046,153 people have died from the disease, according to Johns Hopkins. The U.S. has had the most COVID-19 cases and deaths of any country. The U.S. has 4.3% of the world’s population, but 21% of the world’s cases and 20.1% of theworld’s deaths.