Florida reports 7,121 new cases, positivity rate remains high as numbers keep creeping upward
The number of new COVID-19 cases in Florida continues to climb even as more people get vaccinated.
Florida reported 7,121 new coronavirus cases on Friday and another 62 new resident deaths linked to COVID-19. The state has now reported 2,111,807 cases since the pandemic began.
In early January, the seven-day average for new cases had climbed as high as 17,991. It was 5,827 on Friday.
South Florida
South Florida counties reported 2,955 new cases Friday. July 2020 was the worst month for cases in South Florida.
Palm Beach County: 470 additional cases and 7 more deaths. The county now has 135,324 confirmed cases and 2,744 deaths, including 52 non-residents.
Broward County: 884 additional cases and 4 more deaths. Broward has a known total of 221,623 cases and 2,763 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. The death tally includes 46 non-residents.
Miami-Dade County: 1,601 additional cases and 14 new deaths. The county now has 457,918 confirmed cases and 5,997 deaths, including 43 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 6.51% on Friday, down from 6.73% 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, newly reported case numbers reflect the results of 107,653 COVID-19 tests of Florida residents received from labs in the past day, down from 117,112 results reported the day before.
The positivity rate has been rising in South Florida counties, and now ranges between 5% and 7%.
Palm Beach County: Test results for 7,975 residents were reported Friday, leading to a daily positivity rate of 5.84%. That’s down from 6.36% the previous day.
Broward County: Test results for 13,019 residents were reported Friday, leading to a daily positivity rate of 6.77%. That’s down from 6.96% the previous day.
Miami-Dade County: Test results for 22,377 residents were reported Friday, leading to a daily positivity rate of 7.15%. That’s down from 7.32% the previous day.
Deaths
The numbers of hospitalized COVID patients and deaths in South Florida have declined, with the daily death toll below 100 per day since March 26.
The state’s pandemic data report shows a total of 33,968 Floridians have died from COVID-19. In addition, 658 non-residents have died after contracting the virus. Most of the fatalities reported Friday 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 Friday, there were 3,010 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 424, Palm Beach County had 186 and Miami-Dade had 540.
Hospitalizations hit a peak in late July of about 9,500 patients statewide. They have remained stable in April at around 3,000 people hospitalized with COVID-19.
Vaccines
More than 5.67 million people in Florida have received one or more doses of a COVID vaccine.
In Florida, 2,732,864 people have received their first dose of the vaccine, or about 12.72% of the population.
So far, 4,053,597 people have completed the series of doses required to be vaccinated. That represents about 18.87% of the population.