Ryan Nicol
South Florida appears to be enduring another significant spike in COVID-19 cases following the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, according to recent reports from the Florida Department of Health.
Monday’s newest report confirms a troubling trend in the region. New cases are up significantly in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties — with those counties showing week-to-week increases ranging from 29% in Miami-Dade to more than 60% in Broward.
That’s not due solely to an increase in testing either, as the respective positivity rates are also showing substantial week-to-week increases in all three counties. Deaths and hospitalizations are also up week-to-week in all three counties.
The region didn’t exhibit a similar surge post-Thanksgiving, though that holiday did appear to reverse a downward trend in the numbers. Ultimately, a massive post-Thanksgiving surge never materialized, and South Florida once again went into the Christmas holiday season with reasonably encouraging trends.
But numbers just ahead of the New Year showed a surge was possible. Reports issued through the weekend now put Miami-Dade’s one-week positivity rate above 10%. Broward and Palm Beach are both nearing that metric as well. Reports throughout this week will show whether that change holds, or moves upward or downward significantly. The region has not seen sustained positivity rates above 10% since the summer spike, which resulted in dozens of deaths per day.
Monday’s reports saw 4,304 new cases across the tri-county area. Another 27 residents in the region died, bringing the area’s overall death toll to 8,059.
Here are some of the weekly numbers for the previous three weeks throughout the South Florida tri-county area:
Miami-Dade
— Dec. 14-20: 33 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 14 newly-reported deaths per day, 2,281 new confirmed cases per day, 8.8% positivity rate
— Dec. 21-27: 24 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 8 newly-reported deaths per day, 1,958 new confirmed cases per day, 8.4% positivity rate
— Dec. 28-Jan. 3: 28 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 14 newly-reported deaths per day, 2,532 new confirmed cases per day, 10.5% positivity rate
Broward
— Dec. 14-20: 25 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 5 newly-reported deaths per day, 1,033 new confirmed cases per day, 7.3% positivity rate
— Dec. 21-27: 20 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 6 newly-reported deaths per day, 746 new confirmed cases per day, 6.7% positivity rate
— Dec. 28-Jan. 3: 20 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 8 newly-reported deaths per day, 1,198 new confirmed cases per day, 9.5% positivity rate
Palm Beach
— 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, 505 new confirmed cases per day, 7.3% positivity rate
— Dec. 28-Jan. 3: 24 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 8 newly-reported deaths per day, 753 new confirmed cases per day, 9.6% positivity rate
