State reports record 17,783 cases
Florida reported a one- day record f or COVID - 1 9 cases Wednesday, as the state continued to experience a surge in cases and scramble for vaccinations.
Florida reported 17,783 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday and another 129 new resident deaths linked to COVID- 19. The state has now reported 1,409,906 cases since the pandemic began.
The number of people vaccinated continued to rise. Florida has received 1,152,000 doses and administered 339,032, as of Wednesday, according to the U. S. Centers for Disease Control. Each of the two approved vaccines requires a second dose, and the state’s totals include second doses given to 5,917 people.
South Florida
Palm Beach County: 844 additional cases and 0 more deaths. The county now has 87,683 confirmed cases and 1,952 deaths, including 29 non- residents.
Broward County: 1 ,4 0 4 additional cases and 7 more deaths. Broward has a known total of 144,590 cases and 1,922 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. The death tally includes 32 non- residents.
Miami- Dade County: 3,136 additional cases and 3 new deaths.
The county now has 314,742 confirmed cases and 4,287 deaths, including 27 non- 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, Florida has exceeded 5% in its widely publicized calculation for assessing the rate for testing of residents.
The state reported a daily positivity rate of 12.54% on Wednesday, down from 12.73% the day before. This method of calculating positivity counts new infections only, but also counts repeat negative tests, which skews the figure downward.
According to the state, the new reported case numbers reflect the results of 138,528 COVID- 19 tests of Florida residents received from labs in the past day, up from 119,383 results reported the day before.
Palm Beach County: Test results for 7,098 residents were reported Wednesday, leading to a daily positivity rate of 11.44%. That’s up from 10.83% the previous day.
Broward County: Test results for 13,068 residents were reported Wednesday, leading to a daily positivity rate of 10.55%. That’s up from 10.49% the previous day.
Miami- Dade County: Test results for 30,298 residents were reported Wednesday, l eading t o a daily positivity rate of 10.23%. That’s down from 10.96% the previous day.
Deaths
The state’s pandemic data report shows a total of 22,317 Floridians have died from COVID- 19.
In addition, 330 non- resi dents have died after contracting the virus. Most of the fatalities reported Wednesday happened over several weeks but were just confirmed in the past day.
Out of all 50 states and the District of Columbia, Florida ranks No. 21 for deaths per 100K residents and No. 23 for cases per 100K residents, according to the latest data from the health department and the COVID Tracking Project.
Hospitalizations
As of Wednesday, there were 7,302 people hospitalized in Florida with a primary diagnosis of COVID- 19, according to the state Agency for Health Care Administration.
In South Florida, Broward County reported 602, Palm Beach County had 406 and Miami- Dade had 1,075.
Hospitalizations hit a peak in late July of about 9,500 patients statewide, then dipped as low as 2,011 on Oct. 19. The numbers steadily increased throughout November and December.