Another 138 dead in South Florida as region’s daily COVID-19 death toll record again surges upward

South Florida achieved another grim milestone Friday, with the region seeing a record 138 COVID-19 deaths according to new numbers released by the Department of Health Friday.

More than 3,100 have now died from the disease across Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.

Wednesday’s report saw a then-record 77 deaths in the region. Thursday’s report shattered that mark with 109 deaths, a 42% increase from the day before.

One day later, the total is up another 27%. It’s not clear whether deaths have peaked or will continue to climb through the weekend.

Friday’s report saw 96 people die in Miami-Dade County alone.

Many of the region’s testing sites will be closed through the weekend as well due to Tropical Storm Isaias.

In Broward, more than 91% of adult intensive care unit (ICU) beds remain filled. Broward has had fewer than 10% of those beds available for weeks. In Miami-Dade, more than 90% of those beds are filled as well. That number is around 77% in Palm Beach and 83% statewide.

Hospitalizations are also still climbing in both Broward and Miami-Dade counties. In Palm Beach, that number is down week-to-week.

Over the previous week, an average of 67 people have died each day in South Florida’s tri-county area as the state also repeatedly sets records in terms of lives lost due to the novel coronavirus.

Social distancing measures have helped bring the positivity rate down in all three South Florida counties, though rates still remain high.

Palm Beach is beginning to see that number consistently below 10% for the first time in weeks. Over the past seven days, Broward has still seen 12.4% of its tests coming back positive. In Miami-Dade, that number is still at 17.5% during that same span.

Here are some of the weekly numbers for the previous three weeks throughout the South Florida tri-county area:

Miami-Dade

— July 10-16: 43 new hospitalizations per day, 22 deaths per day, 2,775 new confirmed cases per day, 19.4% positivity rate

— July 17-23: 59 new hospitalizations per day, 14 deaths per day, 2,930 new confirmed cases per day, 19.3% positivity rate

— July 24-30: 61 new hospitalizations per day, 34 deaths per day, 2,857 new confirmed cases per day, 17.5% positivity rate

Broward

— July 10-16: 33 new hospitalizations per day, 6 deaths per day, 1,452 new confirmed cases per day, 14.9% positivity rate

— July 17-23: 39 new hospitalizations per day, 10 deaths per day, 1,387 new confirmed cases per day, 14.5% positivity rate

— July 24-30: 46 new hospitalizations per day, 23 deaths per day, 1,270 new confirmed cases per day, 12.4% positivity rate

Palm Beach

— July 10-16: 26 new hospitalizations per day, 10 deaths per day, 724 new confirmed cases per day, 11.6% positivity rate

— July 17-23: 31 new hospitalizations per day, 12 deaths per day, 661 new confirmed cases per day, 11.2% positivity rate

— July 24-30: 26 new hospitalizations per day, 10 deaths per day, 604 new confirmed cases per day, 9.5% 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.