South Florida Sun Sentinel
May 20, 2021 2:44 PM
Florida’s COVID test positivity rate dropped Thursday to its lowest point since October, an encouraging sign that came as the daily number of new cases continued to decline.
The positivity rate fell to 3.92%, continuing a downward trend begun in mid-April. The last time the positivity rate was lower was Oct. 10.
Florida reported new coronavirus cases on and another new resident deaths linked to COVID-19. The state has now reported cases since the pandemic began.
The seven-day average for new cases reached as high as 17,991 on Jan. 8. It was 2,839 on Thursday.
Palm Beach County: additional cases and more deaths. The county now has confirmed cases and deaths, including non-residents.
Broward County: additional cases and more deaths. Broward has a known total of cases and deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. The death tally includes non-residents.
Miami-Dade County: additional cases and new deaths. The county now has confirmed cases and deaths, including non-residents.
Public health experts say the virus is considered under control when the COVID-19 test positivity rate is under 5%. Florida often has exceeded 5% in its widely publicized calculation for assessing the rate for testing of residents.
The state reported a daily positivity rate of % on , from % 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 COVID-19 tests of Florida residents received from labs in the past day, from results reported the day before.
Palm Beach County: Test results for residents were reported , leading to a daily positivity rate of %. That’s from % the previous day.
Broward County: Test results for residents were reported , leading to a daily positivity rate of %. That’s from % the previous day.
Miami-Dade County: Test results for residents were reported , leading to a daily positivity rate of %. That’s from % the previous day.
The state’s pandemic data report shows a total of Floridians have died from COVID-19. In addition, non-residents have died after contracting the virus. Most of the fatalities reported 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. for deaths per 100K residents and No. for cases per 100K residents, according to the latest data from the health department and the COVID Tracking Project.
As of Thursday, there were 2,262 people hospitalized in Florida with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19, according to the state Agency for Health Care Administration.
As of , there were 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 , Palm Beach County had and Miami-Dade had .
Hospitalizations hit a peak in late July of about 9,500 patients statewide.
More than 9.8 million Floridians have had one or more doses of a COVID vaccine as of Thursday.
In Florida, 419,416 people have received their first dose of the vaccine only, or about 1.95% of the population.
So far, 24,200 people have completed the series of doses required to be fully vaccinated. That represents about 0.11% of the population.
Source: Florida Department of Health daily vaccine report
David Fleshler can be reached at dfleshler@sunsentinel.com and 954-356-4535.
