Ryan Nicol
South Florida’s tri-county area is continuing to show worrying signs regarding the spread of COVID-19, as the region hit another grim milestone over the weekend.
Overall, the region crossed the 800,000-case mark over the weekend. That number now sits at more than 802,000 cases since the pandemic began last year.
Cases are currently on the rise. Miami-Dade and Broward counties are now showing their highest positivity rates in nearly two months. That metric helps measure how fast the virus is spreading in an area, and has steadily risen the past week-plus, even as the vaccination effort continues.
In Miami-Dade County, the case positivity rate over the previous seven days sits at 6.9%. That’s a 1 point jump from week-to-week. In Broward, the number is at 7.3%, a week-to-week rise of 0.7 points.
Palm Beach County is showing a less significant increase, and hasn’t hit the same dire benchmarks as its southern neighbors.
But Broward and Miami-Dade are seeing their worst case positivity numbers since early February. At that point, the region was coming down off of a post-holiday surge. Now, the area is showing concerning signs just as individuals gathered for Passover and Easter. Those holiday gatherings, combined with spring break season, could send the numbers even higher in the coming weeks.
That would jeopardize the region’s death toll, which had finally dropped to lower levels several months after the holiday spike. The death toll has already seen a few daily spikes in recent days once again. A sustained increase in cases would put the region back under threat of regularly seeing dozens die each day.
Still, it’s not clear how high case counts will climb given the vaccination surge ongoing. Monday marks the first day that all adults in the state are eligible for the vaccine. More than 2.8 million doses have been administered already. That effort could keep case counts from hitting the high numbers seen at the peak of the winter surge.
Here are some of the weekly numbers for the previous three weeks throughout the South Florida tri-county area:
Miami-Dade
— March 14-20: 29 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 9 newly-reported deaths per day, 1,195 new confirmed cases per day, 6.6% positivity rate, 19,926 vaccine doses administered per day, 6,879 vaccinations completed per day
— March 21-27: 29 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 13 newly-reported deaths per day, 1,147 new confirmed cases per day, 5.9% positivity rate, 22,169 vaccine doses administered per day, 10,382 vaccinations completed per day
— March 28-April 3: 29 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 15 newly-reported deaths per day, 1,254 new confirmed cases per day, 6.9% positivity rate, 22,356 vaccine doses administered per day, 11,773 vaccinations completed per day
Broward
— March 14-20: 17 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 7 newly-reported deaths per day, 609 new confirmed cases per day, 6% positivity rate, 13,022 vaccine doses administered per day, 4,780 vaccinations completed per day
— March 21-27: 13 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 4 newly-reported deaths per day, 643 new confirmed cases per day, 6.6% positivity rate, 14,539 vaccine doses administered per day, 5,339 vaccinations completed per day
— March 28-April 3: 15 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 11 newly-reported deaths per day, 728 new confirmed cases per day, 7.3% positivity rate, 14,172 vaccine doses administered per day, 6,567 vaccinations completed per day
Palm Beach
— March 14-20: 13 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 7 newly-reported deaths per day, 320 new confirmed cases per day, 5.6% positivity rate, 7,397 vaccine doses administered per day, 3,023 vaccinations completed per day
— March 21-27: 9 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 6 newly-reported deaths per day, 364 new confirmed cases per day, 6% positivity rate, 8,482 vaccine doses administered per day, 2,821 vaccinations completed per day
— March 28-April 3: 13 newly-reported hospitalizations per day, 4 newly-reported deaths per day, 358 new confirmed cases per day, 6% positivity rate, 9,617 vaccine doses administered per day, 4,103 vaccinations completed per day
