COVID-19 cases drop week-to-week across South Florida for first time since November

Image via AP.

For the first time since late November, COVID-19 cases have dropped week-to-week in all three major South Florida counties, confirming trends which showed the omicron surge is peaking in the region.

Case counts shot up during the omicron surge. While hospitalizations have not reached the heights seen during prior surges, the huge number of people getting sick has impacted businesses and society in South Florida and across the U.S.

The latest report from the Department of Health, released Friday, showed a modest 4% drop in case counts this past week in Broward and Palm Beach counties. Miami-Dade County saw its caseload drop 15% week-to-week. Of course, those numbers don’t account for at-home tests, which often aren’t reported to the state.

While raw case counts dropped slightly, the case positivity rate — which measures the share of tests coming back positive — showed a more significant decline in all three counties. That’s likely due to the large number of people still testing.

But a significantly smaller share are seeing positive tests, though the numbers are still near record highs set during the latest surge.

The case positivity rate dropped 6 points in Miami-Dade County, going from 31.3% from Dec. 31-Jan. 6 to 25.3% from Jan. 7-13. Broward saw a drop of 5.4 points (33.5% to 28.1%). The case positivity rate in Palm Beach dropped by 6.5 points, from 36.2% to 29.7%.

Again, those numbers remain high. But they represent the first stark decline the region has seen in months and are a clear sign the omicron spread has peaked in the region.

Vaccinations also rose week-to-week in Broward and Miami-Dade counties. Miami-Dade saw a 17% increase while Broward saw a 12% increase.

Palm Beach recorded a 7% decrease in vaccinations as compared to the week prior.

Miami-Dade County has now recorded more than 1 million COVID-19 cases. It’s the first county in Florida to hit that mark, but thankfully comes as the trendlines seem to be moving in a good direction for South Florida.

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

Miami-Dade

— Dec. 24-30: 98,437 newly confirmed cases, 27.3% positivity rate, 14,704 vaccine doses administered, 93% of 5-and-up population now vaccinated

— Dec. 31-Jan. 6: 110,806 newly confirmed cases, 31.3% positivity rate, 13,284 vaccine doses administered, 93% of 5-and-up population now vaccinated

— Jan. 7-13: 93,877 newly confirmed cases, 25.3% positivity rate, 15,577 vaccine doses administered, 94% of 5-and-up population now vaccinated

Broward

— Dec. 24-30: 48,018 newly confirmed cases, 31.7% positivity rate, 9,308 vaccine doses administered, 81% of 5-and-up population now vaccinated

— Dec. 31-Jan. 6: 50,315 newly confirmed cases, 33.5% positivity rate, 8,308 vaccine doses administered, 82% of 5-and-up population now vaccinated

— Jan. 7-13: 48,216 newly confirmed cases, 28.1% positivity rate, 9,331 vaccine doses administered, 82% of 5-and-up population now vaccinated

Palm Beach

— Dec. 24-30: 24,488 newly confirmed cases, 30.6% positivity rate, 5,536 vaccine doses administered, 74% of 5-and-up population now vaccinated

— Dec. 31-Jan. 6: 27,941 newly confirmed cases, 36.2% positivity rate, 6,339 vaccine doses administered, 74% of 5-and-up population now vaccinated

— Jan. 7-13: 26,918 newly confirmed cases, 29.7% positivity rate, 5,878 vaccine doses administered, 75% of 5-and-up population now vaccinated