State reports 4,064 new COVID-19 cases, 47 more deaths
With 9.3 million Floridians now vaccinated with at least one dose, the seven-day average for COVID cases continues to dip.
Florida reported 4,064 new coronavirus cases on Thursday and another 47 new resident deaths linked to COVID-19. The state has now reported 2,282,613 cases since the pandemic began.
The seven-day average for new cases reached as high as 17,991 on Jan. 8. It was 3,454 on Thursday.
South Florida
South Florida counties reported 1,413 new COVID cases Thursday and 13 more deaths.
Palm Beach County: 296 additional cases and 2 more deaths. The county now has 146,146 confirmed cases and 2,864 deaths, including 54 non-residents.
Broward County: 342 additional cases and 8 more deaths. Broward has a known total of 241,132 cases and 3,036 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. The death tally includes 50 non-residents.
Miami-Dade County: 775 additional cases and 3 new deaths. The county now has 493,007 confirmed cases and 6,327 deaths, including 49 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%.
Florida often has exceeded 5% in its widely publicized calculation for assessing the rate for testing of residents. On Thursday, the statewide positivity rate dropped below 5%.
The state reported a daily positivity rate of 4.41% on Thursday, down from 4.55% 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 91,977 COVID-19 tests of Florida residents received from labs in the past day, up from 70,071 results reported the day before.
The positivity rate dropped slightly in Broward and Palm Beach counties on Thursday, dipping below 4%.
Palm Beach County: Test results for 7,544 residents were reported Thursday, leading to a daily positivity rate of 3.84%. That’s down from 4.06% the previous day.
Broward County: Test results for 10,558 residents were reported Thursday, leading to a daily positivity rate of 3.23%. That’s down from 3.66% the previous day.
Miami-Dade County: Test results for 18,559 residents were reported Thursday, leading to a daily positivity rate of 4.12%. That’s up from 3.95% the previous day.
Deaths
The numbers of daily deaths reported from COVID-19 have declined to fewer than 100 during May. On Thursday, the state reported 47 additional deaths.
The state’s pandemic data report shows a total of 35,929 Floridians have died from COVID-19. In addition, 719 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
Hospitalizations for COVID-19 have stabilized in Florida in recent weeks.
As of Thursday, there were 2,684 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 359, Palm Beach County had 168 and Miami-Dade had 437.
Hospitalizations hit a peak in late July of about 9,500 patients statewide.
Vaccines