Ryan Nicol
South Florida’s daily death toll has spiked once again, as another 86 people have died across the tri-county area.
That’s according to new information released Friday from the Department of Health.
The number of new cases has continued to trend downward in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties. The same is true for the share of tests which come back positive. That’s an indication strict social distancing measures have slowed the virus’s spread.
The death toll, however, has seen occasional spikes in recent weeks. That’s because deaths are a lagging indicator, as it can take days or weeks after a positive test for an individual to fall severely ill or die.
Nearly 2,000 Florida residents have now died in Miami-Dade County alone. That county recorded its 1,999th death in Friday’s report. Another 974 have died in Palm Beach County, while 914 lives have been lost in Broward.
The region added another 2,686 cases in Friday’s report, which covers data received Thursday morning through Friday morning. Miami-Dade County added 1,683 cases. Broward recorded 636 new cases, while 367 more people tested positive in Palm Beach.
South Florida’s tri-county area has now recorded more than 246,000 positive tests since the start of the outbreak.
Hospital space is continuing to clear up in the region. In late July and early August, Broward and Miami-Dade routinely hovered around 90% capacity in adult intensive care unit (ICU) bed space. Broward is now under 87% capacity, while Miami-Dade sits at 82.7% capacity.
Palm Beach has just 72.4% of its adult ICU beds filled. Those numbers account for all hospital patients, not just those with COVID-19.
Here are some of the weekly numbers for the previous three weeks throughout the South Florida tri-county area:
Miami-Dade
— July 24-30: 61 new hospitalizations per day, 34 deaths per day, 2,851 new confirmed cases per day, 17.6% positivity rate
— July 31-Aug. 6: 92 new hospitalizations per day, 28 deaths per day, 1,568 new confirmed cases per day, 14.7% positivity rate
— Aug. 7-13: 66 new hospitalizations per day, 27 deaths per day, 1,892 new confirmed cases per day, 13.7% positivity rate
Broward
— July 24-30: 46 new hospitalizations per day, 23 deaths per day, 1,263 new confirmed cases per day, 12.4% positivity rate
— July 31-Aug. 6: 54 new hospitalizations per day, 10 deaths per day, 769 new confirmed cases per day, 10.3% positivity rate
— Aug. 7-13: 87 new hospitalizations per day, 19 deaths per day, 693 new confirmed cases per day, 9% positivity rate
Palm Beach
— July 24-30: 26 new hospitalizations per day, 10 deaths per day, 604 new confirmed cases per day, 9.6% positivity rate
— July 31-Aug. 6: 25 new hospitalizations per day, 15 deaths per day, 403 new confirmed cases per day, 8.9% positivity rate
— Aug. 7-13: 29 new hospitalizations per day, 8 deaths per day, 347 new confirmed cases per day, 7.2% 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.
