8,408 COVID-19 cases, 160 additional deaths

The number of new COVID cases has dropped this week from earlier this month as vaccinations in Florida continue to roll out.

Florida reported 8,408 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday and another 160 new resident deaths linked to COVID-19. The state has now reported 1,676,171 cases since the pandemic began.

The seven-day average for new cases has been declining since January 8.

South Florida

South Florida reported 2,542 new cases on Tuesday.

Palm Beach County: 367 additional cases and 14 more deaths. The county now has 103,862 confirmed cases and 2,172 deaths, including 33 non-residents.

Broward County: 653 additional cases and 12 more deaths. Broward has a known total of 168,653 cases and 2,097 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. The death tally includes 35 non-residents.

Miami-Dade County: 1,522 additional cases and 9 new deaths. The county now has 364,123 confirmed cases and 4,799 deaths, including 31 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 10.19% on Wednesday, up from 9.19% 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 81,264 COVID-19 tests of Florida residents received from labs in the past day, down from 103,200 results reported the day before.

Palm Beach County: Test results for 4,624 residents were reported Wednesday, leading to a daily positivity rate of 9.13%. That’s down from 9.56% the previous day.

Broward County: Test results for 7,470 residents were reported Wednesday, leading to a daily positivity rate of 8.63%. That’s up from 8.50% the previous day.

Miami-Dade County: Test results for 18,287 residents were reported Wednesday, leading to a daily positivity rate of 8.10%. That’s down from 8.37% the previous day.

Deaths

The state’s pandemic data report shows a total of 25,833 Floridians have died from COVID-19. In addition, 416 non-residents have died after contracting the virus. Most of the fatalities reported Wednesday happened over several weeks but were just confirmed in the past day.

Florida reported 160 additional deaths from COVID after reporting 227 more on Tuesday.

Out of all 50 states and the District of Columbia, Florida ranks No. 23 for deaths per 100K residents and No. 25 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 6,775 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 655, Palm Beach County had 441 and Miami-Dade had 983.

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 December and January, but appear to be holding steady this week.

Vaccines

In Florida, 1,270,739 people have received their first dose of the vaccine, or about 5.92% of the population.

So far, 175,841 people have completed the series of doses required to be vaccinated. That represents about 0.82% of the population.