Ryan Nicol
Daily COVID-19 hospitalizations in Miami-Dade County have now reached their highest point since the end of August, a period in which the state was coming off its most severe outbreak of the pandemic.
While those August numbers represented the tail end of that outbreak, Miami-Dade’s current hospitalizations are still increasing.
As of Monday, those numbers had more than tripled in less than a month. Tuesday’s COVID-19 report from the Department of Health showed daily hospitalizations over the previous week again ticking up slightly.
Analysts advise looking at week-long trends to avoid the volatility of day-to-day fluctuations in the numbers. From Dec. 15-21, Miami-Dade saw 34 hospitalizations per day, on average. That’s the first time the county has seen a number that high since the final week of August.
Daily hospitalizations in Palm Beach have increased more slowly than in Miami-Dade, but those Palm Beach numbers are at the highest point since October.
Broward has seen daily hospitalizations hovering in the mid- to low-20s per day for a few weeks now. That doesn’t mark as significant of an increase as seen in Miami-Dade. But the sustained number of hospitalizations in Broward has resulted in similar levels of available hospital bed space in both counties.
As of Tuesday, Broward hospitals had just over 14% of its adult intensive care unit beds open. Miami-Dade hospitals had about 15% of beds available.
A rise in hospitalizations does cause concern for hospitals and staff, who must treat other patients in addition to those plagued with the virus.
One positive sign, however, is that deaths have not hit similar marks as seen during the summer spike. That’s largely thanks to improvements in treatment options as the vaccine rollout has only just begun for a small slice of the population.
Overall, South Florida’s tri-county area saw 3,633 new cases in Tuesday’s report, while deaths increased by six. Raw case numbers are still up week-to-week in all three counties, though the share of positive tests has dropped in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Palm Beach saw a rise of 0.2-percentage points in that metric from week-to-week.
Here are some of the weekly numbers for the previous three weeks throughout the South Florida tri-county area:
Miami-Dade
— Dec. 1-7: 22 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 12 newly-reported deaths per day, 2,119 new confirmed cases per day, 8.9% positivity rate
— Dec. 8-14: 21 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 11 newly-reported deaths per day, 2,194 new confirmed cases per day, 8.8% positivity rate
— Dec. 15-21: 34 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 13 newly-reported deaths per day, 2,306 new confirmed cases per day, 8.6% positivity rate
Broward
— Dec. 1-7: 23 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 7 newly-reported deaths per day, 974 new confirmed cases per day, 7.7% positivity rate
— Dec. 8-14: 22 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 6 newly-reported deaths per day, 861 new confirmed cases per day, 7.3% positivity rate
— Dec. 15-21: 24 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 6 newly-reported deaths per day, 1,055 new confirmed cases per day, 7% positivity rate
Palm Beach
— Dec. 1-7: 13 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 6 newly-reported deaths per day, 534 new confirmed cases per day, 7.3% positivity rate
— Dec. 8-14: 13 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 7 newly-reported deaths per day, 517 new confirmed cases per day, 7% positivity rate
— Dec. 15-21: 18 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 7 newly-reported deaths per day, 580 new confirmed cases per day, 7.2% positivity rate
