Ryan Nicol
Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties are seeing a sharp decline in COVID-19 hospitalizations according to recent data from the Department of Health (DOH).
Over the last seven days, Palm Beach has seen 15 hospitalizations per day. That’s down from 27 per day over the prior seven-day span, a 44% reduction.
Miami-Dade County has recorded an average of 35 hospitalizations per day over the previous seven days. That’s an equivalent 44% drop over the prior seven-day period, which saw 63 hospitalizations per day on average.
For the week before that, Miami-Dade saw a whopping 93 hospitalizations per day. Those hospitalization numbers have dropped over the previous three weeks in both counties.
Neighboring Broward County has yet to see as sustained a drop in hospitalizations, though signs are encouraging. From Aug. 3-9, Broward saw 77 hospitalizations per day. That number actually rose over the next week, with Broward recording 93 hospitalizations per day from Aug. 10-16.
Over the prior seven days, Aug. 17-23, that number dropped again to 74 hospitalizations per day.
Broward’s raw number still sits well above Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties. Still, Broward hospitals are not as overwhelmed as they were just weeks prior.
State data shows just over 80% of adult intensive care unit beds were occupied as of Monday morning. That’s above the 78% mark seen in hospitals statewide, but is down from the highs seen in Broward County, when more than 90% of those beds were routinely filled.
South Florida’s tri-county area recorded 31 new deaths in Monday’s (DOH) report. The region has recorded 60 deaths or fewer for five straight days. With hospitalizations on the decline, a sustained drop in the death toll could soon follow, though that trend is not yet as clear.
South Florida recorded just 1,049 new COVID-19 cases Monday, though that was due in part to a routine drop in testing through the weekend. The share of tests coming back positive continues to plummet. That’s a strong sign the virus is no longer spreading as quickly in the region.
Here are some of the weekly numbers for the previous three weeks throughout the South Florida tri-county area:
Miami-Dade
— Aug. 3-9: 93 new hospitalizations per day, 26 deaths per day, 1,421 new confirmed cases per day, 13.3% positivity rate
— Aug. 10-16: 63 new hospitalizations per day, 30 deaths per day, 1,779 new confirmed cases per day, 13.3% positivity rate
— Aug. 17-23: 35 new hospitalizations per day, 25 deaths per day, 941 new confirmed cases per day, 9.2% positivity rate
Broward
— Aug. 3-9: 77 new hospitalizations per day, 10 deaths per day, 645 new confirmed cases per day, 9.2% positivity rate
— Aug. 10-16: 93 new hospitalizations per day, 27 deaths per day, 583 new confirmed cases per day, 8.3% positivity rate
— Aug. 17-23: 74 new hospitalizations per day, 17 deaths per day, 379 new confirmed cases per day, 5.9% positivity rate
Palm Beach
— Aug. 3-9: 30 new hospitalizations per day, 13 deaths per day, 385 new confirmed cases per day, 8.2% positivity rate
— Aug. 10-16: 27 new hospitalizations per day, 8 deaths per day, 280 new confirmed cases per day, 6.9% positivity rate
— Aug. 17-23: 15 new hospitalizations per day, 10 deaths per day, 209 new confirmed cases per day, 4.9% 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.
