South Florida crosses 580K COVID-19 cases, nears 8,400 deaths

Stock image via Adobe.

South Florida’s tri-county area has now eclipsed 580,000 COVID-19 cases in total following Wednesday’s newest report from the Department of Health.

The region tallied 4,337 new cases Wednesday, bringing the overall total to 581,926. Another 33 people also lost their lives to the virus, bringing South Florida’s overall death toll to 8,398.

Miami-Dade is continuing to see a sharp increase in hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19. Wednesday saw 20 newly-reported deaths and 64 newly-reported hospitalizations. In the past seven days, Miami-Dade County has seen an average of 30 newly-reported deaths per day and 50 newly-reported hospitalizations per day.

That’s a significant increase from weeks prior. Hospitalizations in Miami-Dade County have seen a nearly 79% increase from week-to-week, while deaths have more than doubled.

There is some good news in the region, however, as the case positivity rate has now dropped week-to-week in all three counties. That metric — which measures the share of overall tests coming back positive — is still hovering upwards of 9%. Experts say that number should be kept below 5%.

But while the region isn’t out of the woods yet regarding the post-holiday surge, it does appear the tri-county area has seen that surge peak for now. Officials will now hope to see infection data dip further, which would eventually drive down hospitalizations and deaths as well.

Here are some of the weekly numbers for the previous three weeks throughout the South Florida tri-county area:

Miami-Dade

— Dec. 23-29: 25 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 10 newly-reported deaths per day, 2,105 new confirmed cases per day, 9.3% positivity rate

— Dec. 30-Jan. 5: 28 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 13 newly-reported deaths per day, 2,676 new confirmed cases per day, 10.6% positivity rate

— Jan. 6-12: 50 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 30 newly-reported deaths per day, 2,764 new confirmed cases per day, 9.5% positivity rate

Broward

— Dec. 23-29: 23 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 6 newly-reported deaths per day, 858 new confirmed cases per day, 7.8% positivity rate

— Dec. 30-Jan. 5: 17 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 7 newly-reported deaths per day, 1,202 new confirmed cases per day, 9.9% positivity rate

— Jan. 6-12: 30 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 8 newly-reported deaths per day, 1,291 new confirmed cases per day, 9.2% positivity rate

Palm Beach

— Dec. 23-29: 19 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 6 newly-reported deaths per day, 518 new confirmed cases per day, 8% positivity rate

— Dec. 30-Jan. 5: 19 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 6 newly-reported deaths per day, 805 new confirmed cases per day, 9.9% positivity rate

— Jan. 6-12: 15 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 9 newly-reported deaths per day, 884 new confirmed cases per day, 9.7% positivity rate