Ryan Nicol
South Florida’s tri-county area added 4,560 new coronavirus cases in Friday’s report from the Florida Department of Health. That means the region has now crossed 100,000 total recorded cases since the outbreak began.
Miami-Dade County added 2,380 new cases in Friday’s report, which covers new data from Thursday morning to Friday morning. Broward added 1,603 new cases, while Palm Beach tallied 577 cases.
Those three counties have now recorded 104,279 cases overall. If the region — home to just over 6 million people — were a country, it would sit just outside the top 20 in total cases and would possess one of the worst per capita infection rates of any nation in the world.
The death rate in all three counties did drop once again as the virus continues its spread among younger residents. The significant spike in cases in recent weeks has not translated to a higher rate of death. As more Floridians have been infected, however, the state has recorded its highest two death totals of the outbreak in the previous two days.
Thursday’s reports saw sharp surges in the share of tests coming back positive in both Broward and Miami-Dade counties. Friday’s report saw that number drop back down to the range seen in recent weeks — though that level still remains dangerously high. Broward recorded a 15% positivity rate in Friday’s report, while Miami-Dade sat at a 20.2% rate.
Each major South Florida county has persisted above a 10% positivity rate for at least two straight weeks. While the share of Floridians dying from the virus is falling in the area, more and more are contracting the disease. That has some worried a spike in deaths could follow as individuals’ conditions worsen.
Here are the weekly numbers for the previous two weeks throughout the South Florida tri-county area:
Miami-Dade
— June 26-July 2: 1,727 new cases per day, 18.2% positivity rate
— July 3-9: 2,289 new cases per day, 21% positivity rate
Broward
— June 26-July 2: 694 new cases per day, 12.9% positivity rate
— July 3-9: 1,213 new cases per day, 15.6% positivity rate
Palm Beach
— June 26-July 2: 403 new cases per day, 11.3% positivity rate
— July 3-9: 553 new cases per day, 13.5% positivity rate
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Editor’s note on methodology: The Florida Department of Health releases new data every morning around 10:45 a.m. The total number reported in those daily reports include the previous day’s totals as well as the most up to date data as of about 9:30 a.m.
Florida Politics uses the report-over-report increase to document the number of new cases each day because it represents the most up-to-date data available. Some of the more specific data, including positivity rates and demographics, considers a different data set that includes only cases reported the previous day.
This is important to note because the DOH report lists different daily totals than our methodology to show day-over-day trends. Their numbers do not include non-residents who tested positive in the state and they only include single-day data, therefore some data in the DOH report may appear lower than what we report.
Our methodology was established based on careful consideration among our editorial staff to capture both the most recent and accurate trends.
