South Florida Sun Sentinel
Apr 30, 2021 2:31 PM
Even as vaccines roll out in the state, the number of new COVID cases per day has remained relatively stable for the last two weeks of April.
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 5,288 on Friday.
South Florida counties reported 1,864 new cases Friday. 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. However, the positivity rate has declined slightly from earlier this month.
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 rose slightly on Friday 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 number of people dying per day from COVID-19 remained well below 100 on Friday.
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 hit a peak in late July of about 9,500 patients statewide.
More than 8.7 million people in Florida have received one or more doses of a COVID vaccine.
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
