South Florida sees highest daily COVID-19 death toll in nearly a month

Image via AP.

South Florida’s tri-county area recorded another 60 COVID-19 deaths Tuesday, the highest daily total since Feb. 11.

The daily reports from the Department of Health detail when those deaths were reported, not necessarily when they occurred. But the spike shows that plenty of people are still feeling the worst effects of the virus even as vaccine efforts continue ramping up in the region.

Tuesday’s total also follows two straight days of relatively low death totals. Sunday’s report saw just 16 new deaths reported, while Monday’s saw 26. But as has consistently been the case in South Florida, those low daily totals did not stay low for long. The region’s overall death toll now sits at 10,619.

Officials recorded another 1,900 COVID-19 cases across Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. Nearly 746,000 cases have now been recorded since the pandemic began.

Miami-Dade County’s vaccine surge is continuing. Florida’s most populous county has averaged more than 14,000 shots per day since Feb. 24, the day when nearly 70 new pharmacies in Miami-Dade began distributing the vaccine.

More than 1.64 million shots have been administered across the tri-county area, with nearly 589,000 people now fully vaccinated.

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

Miami-Dade

— Feb. 16-22: 43 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 19 newly-reported deaths per day, 1,242 new confirmed cases per day, 6.3% positivity rate, 6,743 vaccine doses administered per day, 3,175 vaccines completed per day

— Feb. 23-March 1: 36 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 20 newly-reported deaths per day, 1,232 new confirmed cases per day, 5.8% positivity rate, 12,666 vaccine doses administered per day, 3,630 vaccines completed per day

— March 2-8: 45 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 19 newly-reported deaths per day, 1,203 new confirmed cases per day, 6.2% positivity rate, 14,872 vaccine doses administered per day, 3,851 vaccines completed per day

Broward

— Feb. 16-22: 27 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 11 newly-reported deaths per day, 708 new confirmed cases per day, 6.8% positivity rate, 5,894 vaccine doses administered per day, 2,698 vaccines completed per day

— Feb. 23-March 1: 25 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 8 newly-reported deaths per day, 718 new confirmed cases per day, 6.4% positivity rate, 7,695 vaccine doses administered per day, 2,668 vaccines completed per day

— March 2-8: 22 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 11 newly-reported deaths per day, 650 new confirmed cases per day, 6.3% positivity rate, 9,284 vaccine doses administered per day, 2,921 vaccines completed per day

Palm Beach

— Feb. 16-22: 14 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 8 newly-reported deaths per day, 422 new confirmed cases per day, 6.4% positivity rate, 6,595 vaccine doses administered per day, 4,673 vaccines completed per day

— Feb. 23-March 1: 15 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 10 newly-reported deaths per day, 435 new confirmed cases per day, 6.1% positivity rate, 6,135 vaccine doses administered per day, 3,674 vaccines completed per day

— March 2-8: 11 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 5 newly-reported deaths per day, 357 new confirmed cases per day, 5.6% positivity rate, 7,653 vaccine doses administered per day, 3,755 vaccines completed per day