Florida reports 7,939 new coronavirus cases, a large daily increase as more people get tested

Even as COVID-19 vaccines roll out in the state, Florida reported a rise in the number of daily new cases, indicating the virus continues to remain prevalent in the state as more people get tested.

Florida reported 7,939 new coronavirus cases on Thursday and another 84 new resident deaths linked to COVID-19. The state has now reported 2,104,686 cases since the pandemic began.

In early January, the seven-day average for new cases had climbed as high as 17,991. It was 5,737 on Thursday, a seven-day average last seen in February.

South Florida

South Florida counties reported 3,376 new cases Thursday, up from 2,984 new cases a week ago. July 2020 was the worst month for cases in South Florida.

Palm Beach County: 517 additional cases and 6 more deaths. The county now has 134,854 confirmed cases and 2,737 deaths, including 52 non-residents.

Broward County: 947 additional cases and 4 more deaths. Broward has a known total of 220,739 cases and 2,759 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. The death tally includes 46 non-residents.

Miami-Dade County: 1,912 additional cases and 10 new deaths. The county now has 456,317 confirmed cases and 5,982 deaths, including 42 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 6.73% on Thursday, down from 6.95% 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 newly reported case numbers reflect the results of 117,112 COVID-19 tests of Florida residents received from labs in the past day, up from 83,246 results reported the day before.

The positivity rate has been rising in South Florida counties to above 6%.

Palm Beach County:

Test results for 8,025 residents were reported Thursday, leading to a daily positivity rate of 6.36%. That’s down from 6.85% the previous day.

Broward County: Test results for 13,563 residents were reported Thursday, leading to a daily positivity rate of 6.96%. That’s down from 7.22% the previous day.

Miami-Dade County: Test results for 26,436 residents were reported Thursday, leading to a daily positivity rate of 7.32%. That’s up from 6.98% the previous day.

Deaths

The numbers of hospitalized COVID patients and deaths in South Florida have declined. The daily death count is now below 100 per day.

The state’s pandemic data report shows a total of 33,906 Floridians have died from COVID-19. In addition, 656 non-residents have died after contracting the virus. Most of the fatalities reported Thursday 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. 23 for deaths per 100K residents and No. 16 for cases per 100K residents, according to the latest data from the health department and the COVID Tracking Project.

Hospitalizations

As of Thursday, there were 3,002 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 433, Palm Beach County had 185 and Miami-Dade had 533 persons hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19.

Hospitalizations from coronavirus hit a peak in late July of about 9,500 patients statewide.

Vaccines

More than 6.78 million people in Florida have received one or more doses of the COVID vaccine.

In Florida, 2,715,857 people have received their first dose of the vaccine, or about 12.64% of the population.

So far, 3,914,250 people have completed the series of doses required to be vaccinated. That represents about 18.22% of the population.