Florida sees slight uptick in new cases

New COVID-19 cases in Florida picked up slightly from last week, as did the number of additional deaths from the virus.

The number of new cases in Florida for the week ending Nov. 18 rose to 10,828 from 10,746 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.

The state test positivity stayed stable at 2.5%.

The COVID death count rose slightly from the previous week. There were 385 additional deaths, up from 363 additional COVID deaths a week earlier. One of those deaths was a child younger than 16. That brings the state’s overall death toll to 61,081 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.

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

This is the second week that 1.6 million children in Florida were eligible for a vaccine and 6% now have received a first dose. Already, 56% of 12-year-olds to 19-year-olds in Florida are vaccinated.

The number of people newly vaccinated, which includes children, was 109,494, similar to the 109,459 first doses given out a week ago. About 68% of people 5 and older in Florida are vaccinated.

Throughout the pandemic, a total of 3,677,968 people in the state have had COVID-19.

New cases

▪ Palm Beach County on Friday reported 802 additional cases, up from 713 additional cases a week prior. The total number of confirmed cases in the county stands at 227,099.

▪ Broward County on Friday reported 1,067 additional cases, up slightly from 1,037 additional cases a week ago. The total number of confirmed cases in the county stands at 359,719.

▪ Miami-Dade County on Friday reported 1967 additional cases, down from 2,124 additional cases a week earlier. The total number of confirmed cases in the county stands at 677,570.

Test positivity

Health officials reported a statewide positivity rate of 2.5% on Friday, stable from a week ago. At its worst, Florida’s test positivity climbed as high as 20.5% for the week ending Aug. 19.

Public health experts say the virus is considered under control when the COVID-19 test positivity rate is under 5%. Florida had exceeded 5% in its widely publicized calculation for assessing the rate for testing of residents for the last three months but the rate has been below 3% for several weeks.

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

counties.

In Broward, it was 2.1%, down from 2.2%; in Palm Beach County, it was 2.5%, stable from a week ago and in Miami-Dade, it was 1.7%, stable from a week ago.

Hospitalizations

Florida has seen a major improvement in COVID hospitalizations. As of Friday, 1,383 COVID patients were admitted, compared to 1,466 COVID patients 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 2.39% of beds, compared to 2.53% a week ago.

There also is improvement in COVID patients needing intensive care. Of those ICU beds that are full, 4.63% were occupied by COVID patients, down from 5.3% 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 394,524, compared to 398,949 last week. Some of those went to children and others are booster shots.

Floridians received another 233,474 booster shots this week. That brings the total booster doses to 2.2 million.

More than 14.1 million people in Florida ages 5 and older have received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine. Of those, 10 million have completed their two-dose series and 1.8 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 86% vaccinated. The 20-to-29 age group is 57% vaccinated. Florida’s teens 12 to 19 are 56% vaccinated as well.