Ryan Nicol
South Florida’s tri-county area saw its second-highest daily positivity rate since the recent COVID-19 resurgence, as more than 19% of tests recorded in Monday’s state report came back positive.
The Department of Health report covers data from Sunday morning through Monday morning. The uptick comes as the region had been seeing a week-to-week reduction in the share of tests coming back positive.
That trend still holds in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties. Broward’s positivity rate has hovered near 15% for the previous three weeks however, ticking up to 15.1% over the previous seven days.
Even in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties, the downward trend isn’t as pronounced as it had been, thanks in part to Monday’s sky-high numbers. Palm Beach posted a 13.3% positivity rate. Broward’s number approached 18%. In Miami-Dade, nearly 23% of tests came back positive over the previous 24-hour period.
Overall, the region recorded 5,133 new cases in Monday’s report. Palm Beach added 641, while Broward counted 1,695 and Miami-Dade had 2,797 new confirmed cases.
Nearly 84% of the adult intensive care unit (ICU) beds are occupied across the tri-county area. Palm Beach is faring the best, with 75% of ICU beds occupied. In Broward, that number is at 89%.
Miami-Dade County has approximately 85% of its ICU beds occupied. On Monday, the county promoted its help line to offer hotel rooms for people to self-isolate while they await COVID-19 test results. Lines are open from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. each day at 305-614-1716.
Those hotel rooms had been available to hospital workers, homeless residents and others. Now, the county is offering the rooms to “residents — with or without symptoms— needing to isolate from family members while they wait for test results, as well as those who have been exposed to someone who has tested positive,” according to a Monday release.
“As we continue to take tough measures to tamp down the spread of the virus, we must do all we can to protect our seniors and at-risk families, as well as our hospital personnel, who have been working nonstop throughout this pandemic,” said Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Giménez.
Broward County also recently upped its social distancing regulations by installing a curfew and banning private gatherings of more than 10, among other restrictions.
Here are some of the weekly numbers for the previous three weeks throughout the South Florida tri-county area:
Miami-Dade
— June 29-July 5: 1,964 new confirmed cases per day, 19.6% positivity rate
— July 6-12: 2,665 new confirmed cases per day, 20.4% positivity rate
— July 13-19: 2,758 new confirmed cases per day, 19.7% positivity rate
Broward
— June 29-July 5: 964 new confirmed cases per day, 15% positivity rate
— July 6-12: 1,368 new confirmed cases per day, 15% positivity rate
— July 13-19: 1,366 new confirmed cases per day, 15.1% positivity rate
Palm Beach
— June 29-July 5: 500 new confirmed cases per day, 13.5% positivity rate
— July 6-12: 646 new confirmed cases per day, 12.2% positivity rate
— July 13-19: 655 new confirmed cases per day, 11.4% positivity rate
___
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.
