Florida adds 17,093 daily COVID-19 cases and 110,724 in one week
South Florida hospital administrators have said 95% or higher of their recent and current COVID patients are unvaccinated.
Florida reported 17,093 new COVID-19 cases to the federal government Thursday, the ninth consecutive day of at least 10,000 daily cases, as the state battles the very contagious delta variant and sees unvaccinated people fill hospitals’ intensive-care units.
South Florida hospital administrators have said 95%
or higher of their recent and current COVID patients are unvaccinated.
Florida, which represents about 6.5% of the U.S. population, is accounting for about 21% of the country’s new cases, based on the data that the state is reporting to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Florida’s seven-day average of new cases was 14,757 as of July 29, levels not seen since January, Florida’s worst month of the pandemic. The state also reported 75 new deaths.
From July 23-29, the number of new Florida resident COVID cases jumped by 110,724, a 51% gain, and deaths rose by 409, 45% higher, compared to the previous weekly report from the state, according to the Florida Department of Health.
Last week’s report, for the seven-day period ended July 22, recorded
73,166 new cases and 282 new deaths.
The state’s seven-day positivity rate increased from 15.1% to 18.1%; the state sits at a 17.8% positivity rate since the pandemic began, according to Florida’s DOH.
The high caseloads — and the most severe cases — are primarily due to unvaccinated individuals, public-health experts say, calling it a “pandemic of the unvaccinated.”
The Florida Hospital Association reported there were 9,329 hospitalizations in the state as of Friday.
The rising cases and hospitalizations have pushed South Florida hospitals to limit visitations again. That, along with the CDC’s updated recommendation that everyone, including
fully vaccinated people, wear masks indoors and in schools in areas where there is “substantial and high transmission,” pushed Miami-Dade and Broward counties to reimpose mask mandates in county-owned buildings and facilities this week.
Palm Beach County on Friday announced it would be implementing similar measures on Monday.
All of Florida, with the exception of Glades County in Central Florida, has a “high” level of community transmission, according to the CDC. Glades County is considered to have a “substantial” level of community transmission.
Gov. Ron DeSantis reaffirmed
during a Friday news conference in Cape Coral that there would be no lockdowns, no school closures or mask mandates in Florida. He also issued an executive order Friday that would direct the state’s health and education department to create rules that would stop mask mandates in schools and let parents decide if they want their children to wear masks.
The order could affect the newly issued mask mandate for Broward County Public Schools. On Wednesday, the Broward School Board voted unanimously to impose the mask mandate on all students, teachers and staff
when schools begin on Aug. 18.
January was the worst month of the Florida pandemic, with daily case counts routinely topping 10,000. That followed a surge last July, when daily case counts also topped 10,000. The latter half of July 2021 has been Florida’s third COVID-19 surge.
Cumulatively, Florida has recorded at least 2,634,234 confirmed COVID cases and 39,823 deaths as of Friday, according to the state.
About 10 million Floridians have completed the two-dose series of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines or have completed Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine, or about 52.5 percent of an estimated 19.1 million eligible residents, according to Florida’s weekly COVID reports.
Another 1.7 million have completed their first vaccine dosage, bringing the total number of Floridians who have been fully or partially vaccinated to around 11.7 million, or 61% of the state’s vaccineeligible population, according to the state report.
COVID-19 CASES AND VACCINES IN SOUTH FLORIDA
The Miami Herald can no longer include new deaths by county because the state stopped classifying deaths by county in its report. Florida’s DOH no longer includes daily county case changes, so weekly averages were used.
Miami-Dade County reported 15,584 new resident cases in the week ending July 29, according to the Florida health department.
In Miami-Dade, 1,656,027 people (61% of the county’s total population) are fully vaccinated.
The county’s seven-day positivity rate increased from 10.1% to 12.1%, according to the Florida DOH.
Broward County reported 9,081 new resident cases in the week ending July 29, according to the Florida health department. Only 1,004,960 people (51.5% of the total population) are fully vaccinated.
The seven-day positivity rate increased from 10.9% to 14%.
Palm Beach County reported 5,958 new resident cases in the week ending July 29, according to the Florida health department. Only 753,375 people (50.3% of the county’s total population) are fully vaccinated.
The seven-day positivity rate increased from 12.5% to 15.5%.
Monroe County reported 247 new resident cases in the week ending July 29, according to the Florida health department. Only 43,815 people (59% of the county’s total population) are fully vaccinated.
The seven-day positivity rate increased from 11.6% to 16.2%.