3% of Florida’s children have received first vaccine dose

Testing positivity rate keeps dropping to its lowest since the start of pandemic

New COVID cases in Florida declined further this week and the state’s level of vaccination protection increased with 3% of children getting their first dose of the vaccine.

This is the first week that 1.6 million children in Florida were eligible for their first dose. Already, 53% of 12-year-olds to 19-yearolds in Florida are vaccinated.

The number of new cases in Florida for the week ending Nov. 11 dropped to 10,746 from 11,069 a week ago, according to a report released Friday by the Florida Department of Health. The case counts mark a big improvement from August when the count reached as high as 151,675 new cases in a week.

Florida reported its lowest weekly count for additional COVID deaths since July. There were 363 additional COVID deaths compared with 664 additional deaths from the virus a week earlier. That brings the overall death toll to 60,697 people. The weekly count reported Friday reflects all deaths over the last week or even weeks prior that are newly confirmed with COVID as the cause of death.

In a sign of improvement, the COVID19 test positivity rate continues to go in the right direction — downward.

The rate fell to 2.5%, a slight decline from 2.6% a week ago, marking the lowest the positivity rate been in Florida since the earliest days of the pandemic. At its worst, Florida’s test positivity climbed as high as 20.5% for the week ending Aug. 19.

As the state recovers from the delta wave, it is no longer considered an area with “high” community transmission, according to national standards.

Because children are now eligible, the number of people newly vaccinated grew to 109,459 from 48,922 a week ago.

Throughout the pandemic, a total of 3,668,077 people in the state have had COVID.

New cases

Palm Beach County on Friday reported 713 additional cases, down from 793 additional cases a week prior. The total number of confirmed cases in the county stands at 226,393.

Broward County on Friday reported 1,037 additional cases, down from 1,099 a week ago. The total number of confirmed cases in the county stands at 358,779.

Miami-Dade County on Friday reported 2,124 additional cases, up from 2,099 additional cases a week earlier. The total number of confirmed cases in the county stands at 675,844.

Test positivity

Public health experts say the virus is considered under control when the COVID19 test positivity rate is under 5%. Until the past two weeks, Florida had exceeded 5% in

its widely publicized calculation for assessing the rate for testing of residents for the last three months.

Health officials reported a statewide positivity rate of 2.5% on Friday, down from 2.6% a week ago. This method of calculating positivity counts new infections only but also counts repeat negative tests, which skews the figure downward.

In South Florida, the new case positivity rate is below 5% in all three counties.

In Broward, it was 2.2%, down from 2.3%; in Palm Beach County, it was 2.5%, down from 2.9%, and in Miami-Dade, it was 1.7%, down from 1.8%.

Hospitalizations

Florida has seen a major improvement in COVID hospitalizations. As of Friday, 1,466 COVID patients were admitted, compared to 1,732 COVID a week ago. During the height of the delta wave, more than 17,000 COVID patients were hospitalized.

Health care workers are seeing some relief in their overcrowded COVID wards. On Friday, COVID patients occupied 2.53% of beds, compared to 2.98% a week ago.

There also is improvement in COVID patients needing intensive care. As of Friday, 75% of ICU beds were full, compared with 95% in the last week of August. Of those beds that are full, 5.3% were occupied by COVID patients, down from 6.7% last week.

Hospitals report patients are younger than in prior waves and mostly unvaccinated.

Vaccines

The number of total COVID doses given out in the last week was 398,949, compared to 307,629 last week. Some of those went to children and others are booster shots.

Floridians received another 233,683 booster shots this week. That brings the total booster doses to 1.9 million.

More than 14 million people in Florida ages 5 and older have received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine. Of those, 9.1 million have completed their two-dose series and 2.8 million have received one shot.

The most heavily vaccinated age group in Florida is 65 and older, which is 88% vaccinated, followed by the 60 to 64 age group, which is 85% vaccinated. The 20 to 29 age group is 56% vaccinated. Florida’s teens 12 to 19 are 56% vaccinated as well.