South Florida Sun Sentinel
May 03, 2021 2:32 PM
As vaccines roll out in Florida, the number of new cases appears to be leveling off.
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.
In early January, the seven-day average for new cases had climbed as high as 17,991. It was 4,885 on Monday.
South Florida counties reported1,363 new cases Monday. July 2020 was the worst month for cases in South Florida.
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%. 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 % 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.
The positivity rate was up slightly on Monday in Palm Beach and Broward counties.
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 numbers of deaths from Covid-19 have remained below 100 for the last month and have been below 50 for the last two days.
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 , 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 from Covid-19 hit a peak in late July of about 9,500 patients statewide. They rose slightly in mid-April but are beginning to level off again.
Nearly 8.9 million people in Florida have received one or more doses of a COVID vaccine. According to the CDC tracker, as of Monday morning, Florida ranks 36th in the country for the percentage of the population fully vaccinated and 28th for the percentage of population vaccinated with at least one dose.
In Florida, 419,416 people have received their first dose of the vaccine, or about 1.95% of the population.
So far, 24,200 people have completed the series of doses required to be vaccinated. That represents about 0.11% of the population.
Source: Florida Department of Health daily vaccine report
Sun Sentinel health reporter Cindy Goodman can be reached at cgoodman@sunsentinel.com
