Ryan Nicol
State and local officials appear to be gaining more control over COVID-19 spread in South Florida, but deaths are continuing to add up according to Friday’s Department of Health report.
That data showed 44 newly-reported deaths between Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. That marks the 14th day out of the last 15 that the tri-county area saw 30+ new deaths in a single day. A total of 9,363 people have now died in the region after contracting COVID-19 since the outbreak’s origin.
Friday’s report saw raw case totals rise as well, but that jump was almost entirely due to an even bigger increase in reported testing. Those raw case counts can rise and fall as more or fewer test results are reported to the state. That share of tests coming back positive — a more consistent rate to measure how fast the virus is spreading — dropped day-to-day in all three counties.
That positivity rate metric is now hovering around 7% in all three major counties over the last seven days. That’s a drop of more than 1 percentage point in each county. The ongoing dip brings those areas closer to the 5% mark. Experts say the positivity rate should be below that number to signal the virus is under control.
South Florida added 4,781 new COVID-19 cases Friday, bringing the overall regional total to 668,143.
Here are some of the weekly numbers for the previous three weeks throughout the South Florida tri-county area:
Miami-Dade
— Jan. 15-21: 39 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 21 newly-reported deaths per day, 2,164 new confirmed cases per day, 9.3% positivity rate
— Jan. 22-28: 37 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 20 newly-reported deaths per day, 1,905 new confirmed cases per day, 8.2% positivity rate
— Jan. 29-Feb. 4: 33 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 21 newly-reported deaths per day, 1,724 new confirmed cases per day, 6.9% positivity rate
Broward
— Jan. 15-21: 22 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 8 newly-reported deaths per day, 1,048 new confirmed cases per day, 8.6% positivity rate
— Jan. 22-28: 24 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 9 newly-reported deaths per day, 965 new confirmed cases per day, 8.2% positivity rate
— Jan. 29-Feb. 4: 27 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 11 newly-reported deaths per day, 935 new confirmed cases per day, 7% positivity rate
Palm Beach
— Jan. 15-21: 21 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 9 newly-reported deaths per day, 690 new confirmed cases per day, 8.8% positivity rate
— Jan. 22-28: 15 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 12 newly-reported deaths per day, 663 new confirmed cases per day, 8.6% positivity rate
— Jan. 29-Feb. 4: 19 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 12 newly-reported deaths per day, 631 new confirmed cases per day, 7% positivity rate
