Ryan Nicol
South Florida’s tri-county area may finally be seeing sustainable progress in containing the COVID-19 death toll, as the region recorded just seven deaths Monday.
That comes after only five deaths were reported in South Florida in Sunday’s Department of Health COVID-19 report. Monday marks the fourth straight day the region — Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties — has seen 20 or fewer deaths.
That’s encouraging progress for the area, which saw a more than four-week stretch earlier this year with at least 30 deaths reported nearly every day.
The daily death toll then began vacillating until recently. As of Monday’s report, the average number of daily deaths over the past seven days is down over the prior seven-day span in all three major South Florida counties.
That’s the first time since Feb. 19 that all three major counties have shown a week-to-week drop in that metric.
That mid-February dip was a temporary respite from a routine of dozens of deaths per day. There’s reason to believe the current drop is more sustainable. The daily death toll, while still occasionally volatile, has been declining more consistently in March. In total, 10,923 people in the region have died after contracting COVID-19.
The surge in vaccines is also now helping protect the region’s most vulnerable demographics. South Florida has administered more than 2.18 million vaccine doses. More than 792,000 people are now fully vaccinated. And the shot surge in Miami-Dade County is paying off, as the county is closing the gap with its neighbors in terms of elderly individuals vaccinated.
As of Monday’s report, 46% of those ages 65 and older in Miami-Dade were fully vaccinated. That number sits at 54% in Palm Beach and around 50% in Broward. That narrows the gap seen weeks ago before nearly 70 new vaccination sites opened in Miami-Dade.
On Monday, the state expanded vaccine eligibility to those ages 50 and up, dropping the threshold from 60 years old.
South Florida recorded 1,316 new COVID-19 cases Monday, bringing the regional total to nearly 772,000. Over the past week, the case positivity rate is stable in Broward and Palm Beach but is up by nearly 1 point in Miami-Dade. However, that’s largely due to a one-day spike in the county’s positivity rate, which has not developed into a trend.
Here are some of the weekly numbers for the previous three weeks throughout the South Florida tri-county area:
Miami-Dade
— March 1-7: 42 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 16 newly-reported deaths per day, 1,275 new confirmed cases per day, 5.8% positivity rate, 16,507 vaccine doses administered per day, 4,366 vaccinations completed per day
— March 8-14: 32 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 16 newly-reported deaths per day, 1,046 new confirmed cases per day, 5.8% positivity rate, 18,249 vaccine doses administered per day, 5,975 vaccinations completed per day
— March 15-21: 28 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 8 newly-reported deaths per day, 1,213 new confirmed cases per day, 6.6% positivity rate, 18,811 vaccine doses administered per day, 6,516 vaccinations completed per day
Broward
— March 1-7: 23 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 11 newly-reported deaths per day, 693 new confirmed cases per day, 6.3% positivity rate, 10,419 vaccine doses administered per day, 3,325 vaccinations completed per day
— March 8-14: 19 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 10 newly-reported deaths per day, 587 new confirmed cases per day, 6% positivity rate, 11,525 vaccine doses administered per day, 3,931 vaccinations completed per day
— March 15-21: 17 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 7 newly-reported deaths per day, 604 new confirmed cases per day, 5.9% positivity rate, 11,307 vaccine doses administered per day, 4,124 vaccinations completed per day
Palm Beach
— March 1-7: 12 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 6 newly-reported deaths per day, 370 new confirmed cases per day, 5.6% positivity rate, 8,575 vaccine doses administered per day, 4,312 vaccinations completed per day
— March 8-14: 14 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 7 newly-reported deaths per day, 356 new confirmed cases per day, 5.6% positivity rate, 8,501 vaccine doses administered per day, 4,150 vaccinations completed per day
— March 15-21: 13 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 4 newly-reported deaths per day, 316 new confirmed cases per day, 5.5% positivity rate, 6,683 vaccine doses administered per day, 2,572 vaccinations completed per day
