Florida reports 19,816 new COVID cases
Another record set Thursday
Florida announced another record number of new COVID- 19 cases Thursday, as the race continued between the virus and efforts to vaccinate the public.
Florida reported 19,816 new coronavirus cases on Thursday and another 164 new resident deaths linked to COVID- 19. The state has now reported 1,429,722 cases since the pandemic began.
With each day seeming to bring a new record for new cases, experts say Florida has entered the most difficult period of the pandemic, a time of high case numbers and deaths that could last for months.
“It’s going to get worse before it gets better,” said Dr. Marissa J. Levine, director of the University of South Florida’s Center for Leadership in Public Health Practice. “We haven’t even seen the New Year’s Eve impact on top of the current surge, so I think all bets are off that this is going to end quickly. This will be a number of weeks, maybe a couple of months.”
She blamed a lack of government restrictions, lagging efforts by people to practice social distancing and other safety measures, and the expected spread of a more contagious form of the virus.
“All of that does not bode well,” she said, predicting a rise in hospitalizations and deaths. “If people are taking the arrival of vaccine as an opportunity to lower their guard, then things could definitely get much worse.”
The number of vaccinations continued to rise. Florida has administered the first dose to 369,622 people and a second dose to 14,601. Both of the approved vaccines require two doses.
South Florida
Palm Beach County: 1,169 additional cases and 10 more deaths. The county now has 88,852 confirmed cases and 1,962 deaths, including 29 non- residents.
Broward County: 1,611 additional cases and 7 more deaths. Broward has a known total of 146,201 cases and 1,929 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. The death tally includes 32 non- residents.
Miami- Dade County: 3,373 additional cases and 37 new deaths.
The county now has 318,115 confirmed cases and 4,324 deaths, including 27 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%. 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 11.58% on Thursday, down from 12.54% 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 168,198 COVID- 19 tests of Florida residents received from labs in the past day, up from 138,528 results reported the day before.
Palm Beach County: Test results for 11,184 residents were reported Thursday, leading to a daily positivity rate of 10.25%. That’s down from 11.44% the previous day.
Broward County: Test results for 16,084 residents were reported Thursday, leading to a daily positivity rate of 10.00%. That’s down from 10.55% the previous day.
Miami- Dade County: Test results for 32,787 residents were reported Thursday, leading to a daily positivity rate of 10.21%. That’s down from 10.23% the previous day.
Deaths
The state’s pandemic data report shows a total of 22,481 Floridians have died from COVID- 19. In addition, 336 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. 21 for deaths per 100K residents and No. 23 for cases per 100K residents, according to the latest data from the health department and the COVID Tracking Project.
Hospitalizations
As of Thursday, there were 7,335 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 583, Palm Beach County had 430 and Miami- Dade had 1,031.
Hospitalizations hit a peak in late July of about 9,500 patients statewide, then dipped as low as 2,011 on Oct. 19. The numbers steadily increased throughout November and December.