State reports 4,671 cases and 36 more COVID deaths

Even as vaccines roll out in the state, the number of new cases per day rose slightly in the last week.

Florida reported 4,671 new coronavirus cases on Sunday and another 36 new resident deaths linked to COVID-19. The state has now reported 2,208,584 cases since the pandemic began.

In early January, the seven-day average for new cases had climbed as high as 17,991.

South Florida

South Florida counties reported 1,753 new cases Sunday. July 2020 was the worst month for cases in South Florida.

Palm Beach County: 308 additional cases and 0 more deaths. The county now has 141,558 confirmed cases and 2,794 deaths, including 52 non-residents.

Broward County: 567 additional cases and 5 more deaths. Broward has a known total of 233,165 cases and 2,913 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. The death tally includes 48 non-residents.

Miami-Dade County: 878 additional cases and 15 new deaths. The county now has 478,660 confirmed cases and 6,156 deaths, including 44 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 6.85% on Sunday, up from 6.25% 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 68,891 COVID-19 tests of Florida residents received from labs in the past day, down from 117,497 results reported the day before.

The positivity rate has been rising in South Florida counties, particularly in Broward County.

Palm Beach County: Test results for 4,965 residents were reported Sunday, leading to a daily positivity rate of 6.24%. That’s down from 6.32% the previous day.

Broward County: Test results for 8,858 residents were reported Sunday, leading to a daily positivity rate of 6.47%. That’s up from 5.63% the previous day.

Miami-Dade County: Test results for 15,336 residents were reported Sunday, leading to a daily positivity rate of 5.93%. That’s down from 6.21% the previous day.

Deaths

The numbers of hospitalized COVID patients and deaths in South Florida have declined.

The state’s pandemic data report shows a total of 34,848 Floridians have died from COVID-19. In addition, 686 non-residents have died after contracting the virus.

Most of the fatalities reported Sunday 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 Sunday, there were 3,273 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 460, Palm Beach County had 194 and Miami-Dade had 568.

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

Vaccines

More than 5.67 million people in Florida have received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine.