COVID-19 in Florida: 5,520 new cases and 7 more dead

Florida reported 5,520 new coronavirus cases on Sunday and another 7 new resident deaths linked to COVID-19. The state has now reported 2,124,233 cases since the pandemic began.

The U.S. has more confirmed cases and deaths than any other country in the world. As of Sunday, more than 31.7 million Americans have tested positive for COVID-19 and at least 561,840 people have died across the U.S., as reported by Johns Hopkins University.

Worldwide, more than 135.5 million people have tested positive for COVID-19 and more than 2.93 million people have died while battling the coronavirus.

Brazil has reported the second most cases, with more than 13.4 million, followed by India with 13.3 million. Brazil has reported more deaths, with a tally of 351,334 compared to 209,212 in Mexico and 169,275 in India.

South Florida

Palm Beach County: 350 additional cases and two fewer deaths. The county now has 136,108 confirmed cases and 2,742 deaths, including 52 non-residents.

Broward County: 707 additional cases and one fewer death. Broward has a known total of 223,152 cases and 2,766 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. The death tally includes 46 non-residents.

Miami-Dade County: 1,160 additional cases and 12 new deaths. The county now has 460,653 confirmed cases and 6,024 deaths, including 43 non-residents.

Data from the state Department of Health appeared to show an adjustment of three fewer deaths than had been previously reported.

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 7.65% on Sunday, up from 6.94% 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 72,620 COVID-19 tests of Florida residents received from labs in the past day, down from 98,229 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 5,437 residents were reported Sunday, leading to a daily positivity rate of 6.36%. That’s up from 5.94% the previous day.

Broward County: Test results for 10,201 residents were reported Sunday, leading to a daily positivity rate of 6.98%. That’s down from 7.15% the previous day.

Miami-Dade County: Test results for 16,868 residents were reported Sunday, leading to a daily positivity rate of 7.19%. That’s down from 7.20% 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 34,021 Floridians have died from COVID-19. In addition, 664 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 100,000 residents and No. 16 for cases per 100,000 residents, according to the latest data from the health department and the COVID Tracking Project.

Hospitalizations

As of Sunday, there were 3,015 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 426, Palm Beach County had 194 and MiamiDade had 542. 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.

In Florida, 2,782,907 people have received their first dose of the vaccine, or about 12.96% of the population.

So far, 4,320,977 people have completed the series of doses required to be vaccinated. That represents about 20.12% of the population.