Ryan Nicol
The share of COVID-19 tests coming back positive in Miami-Dade County is now down week-to-week after data showed signs the virus’s spread was dropping in recent days.
Wednesday’s report from the Department of Health, however, still shows hospitalizations rising week-to-week in Miami-Dade. The remainder of South Florida’s tri-county area — Broward and Palm Beach counties — are not yet seeing a week-to-week fall in the positivity rate.
More than 82% of adult intensive care unit (ICU) beds are occupied in hospitals within Miami-Dade and Broward counties as of Wednesday. That’s above marks seen at the end of August, when the region was coming down from a summer spike.
Currently, hospitalizations are still rising. Whether ICU bed capacity will exceed 90%, as it did at the peak of that summer surge, remains to be seen.
Health experts have warned that states could see the peak of another surge in the virus’s spread this week or next, following family gatherings during Thanksgiving. If those numbers do increase significantly, South Florida’s hospitals could face serious burdens.
South Florida’s tri-county area added 3,601 new COVID-19 cases overall in Wednesday’s report. The region has now confirmed more than 435,000 infections from the virus. Nearly 7,400 people have died in the tri-county area alone since the pandemic began.
Here are some of the weekly numbers for the previous three weeks throughout the South Florida tri-county area:
Miami-Dade
— Nov. 18-24: 11 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 9 newly-reported deaths per day, 1,839 new confirmed cases per day, 8% positivity rate
— Nov. 25-Dec. 1: 18 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 10 newly-reported deaths per day, 1,919 new confirmed cases per day, 8.7% positivity rate
— Dec. 2-8: 22 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 10 newly-reported deaths per day, 2,086 new confirmed cases per day, 8.4% positivity rate
Broward
— Nov. 18-24: 21 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 4 newly-reported deaths per day, 841 new confirmed cases per day, 6.8% positivity rate
— Nov. 25-Dec. 1: 21 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 5 newly-reported deaths per day, 835 new confirmed cases per day, 7.3% positivity rate
— Dec. 2-8: 22 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 7 newly-reported deaths per day, 976 new confirmed cases per day, 7.5% positivity rate
Palm Beach
— Nov. 18-24: 15 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 4 newly-reported deaths per day, 485 new confirmed cases per day, 6.7% positivity rate
— Nov. 25-Dec. 1: 12 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 4 newly-reported deaths per day, 455 new confirmed cases per day, 6.8% positivity rate
— Dec. 2-8: 13 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 7 newly-reported deaths per day, 532 new confirmed cases per day, 7.1% 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.
