Ryan Nicol
South Florida’s tri-county area recorded 4,713 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday. That’s among the highest one-day marks for the region since the summer spike subsided in August.
But Wednesday’s big numbers, courtesy of a new Department of Health report, were paired with a similar spike in overall testing. Both Broward and Miami-Dade counties recorded more tests in Wednesday’s report than in any day dating back to May 12, when detailed county-level COVID-19 data became available.
Though new case numbers were high, those record-setting testing numbers in two of the region’s three major counties caused South Florida’s positivity rate to drop significantly after a massive spike Tuesday.
Nearly 23.5% of the region’s reported tests Tuesday were positive in Tuesday’s report. In Wednesday’s report, that number dropped to just over 6.8%. That Wednesday mark is the third-lowest positivity rate across the tri-county area since Nov. 27.
That’s good news, and implies Tuesday’s report was affected by the staggeringly low number of reported tests.
Still, with Tuesday’s outlier included, the respective positivity rates in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties are all trending upward week-to-week as South Floridians prepare to ring in the New Year.
Hospitalizations are down week-to-week in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, but are up in Palm Beach. Newly-reported deaths have largely held steady in all three counties over the past few weeks.
Here are some of the weekly numbers for the previous three weeks throughout the South Florida tri-county area:
Miami-Dade
— Dec. 9-15: 21 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 12 newly-reported deaths per day, 2,231 new confirmed cases per day, 9% positivity rate
— Dec. 16-22: 33 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 11 newly-reported deaths per day, 2,282 new confirmed cases per day, 8.5% positivity rate
— Dec. 23-29: 25 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 10 newly-reported deaths per day, 2,117 new confirmed cases per day, 9.2% positivity rate
Broward
— Dec. 9-15: 22 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 5 newly-reported deaths per day, 909 new confirmed cases per day, 7.3% positivity rate
— Dec. 16-22: 24 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 6 newly-reported deaths per day, 992 new confirmed cases per day, 6.9% positivity rate
— Dec. 23-29: 23 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 6 newly-reported deaths per day, 861 new confirmed cases per day, 7.7% positivity rate
Palm Beach
— Dec. 9-15: 13 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 7 newly-reported deaths per day, 517 new confirmed cases per day, 7.1% positivity rate
— Dec. 16-22: 17 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 7 newly-reported deaths per day, 576 new confirmed cases per day, 7.2% positivity rate
— Dec. 23-29: 19 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 6 newly-reported deaths per day, 516 new confirmed cases per day, 7.9% positivity rate
