Ryan Nicol
With families wrapped up in the holidays, COVID-19 testing rates in South Florida have plummeted through the Christmas weekend. What data is available, however, shows mostly positive trends for the region.
The same was true around Thanksgiving, however. While cases didn’t explode in South Florida, the post-Thanksgiving period mostly reversed encouraging signs for the tri-county area due to large gatherings. With New Year’s still on the horizon, the next few weeks could see a similar pattern.
As of now, though, the positivity rate — that is, the share of tests coming back positive — has dropped week-to-week in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. That number had been steady or slightly dropping just before the Christmas holiday.
But those pre-Christmas reports also saw hospitalizations rising in all three counties. That trend is downward as well post-holiday, a good sign for hospital preparedness should the region experience any sort of post-holiday surge.
It’s unclear how travel and the focus on holiday celebrations may have affected the numbers reported the last few days. Testing is way down from Friday through Sunday, which could impact the region’s positivity rate. Hospitalizations are dropping as well though, and that reduction is likely less connected to a dip in testing.
In total, South Florida’s tri-county area saw 3,266 new confirmed cases in Monday’s Department of Health report. The region also recorded 22 new deaths due to the disease, bringing the overall total to 7,859 in just those three counties since the start of the pandemic.
Here are some of the weekly numbers for the previous three weeks throughout the South Florida tri-county area:
Miami-Dade
— Dec. 7-13: 19 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 10 newly-reported deaths per day, 2,128 new confirmed cases per day, 8.7% positivity rate
— Dec. 14-20: 33 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 14 newly-reported deaths per day, 2,287 new confirmed cases per day, 8.8% positivity rate
— Dec. 21-27: 24 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 8 newly-reported deaths per day, 1,954 new confirmed cases per day, 8.2% positivity rate
Broward
— Dec. 7-13: 22 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 5 newly-reported deaths per day, 883 new confirmed cases per day, 7.2% positivity rate
— Dec. 14-20: 25 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 5 newly-reported deaths per day, 1,034 new confirmed cases per day, 7.2% positivity rate
— Dec. 21-27: 20 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 6 newly-reported deaths per day, 748 new confirmed cases per day, 6.6% positivity rate
Palm Beach
— Dec. 7-13: 13 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 6 newly-reported deaths per day, 513 new confirmed cases per day, 7% positivity rate
— Dec. 14-20: 17 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 9 newly-reported deaths per day, 576 new confirmed cases per day, 7.4% positivity rate
— Dec. 21-27: 14 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 4 newly-reported deaths per day, 504 new confirmed cases per day, 7.2% positivity rate
