WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Florida's coronavirus situation worsened in one week in deaths, cases, hospitalizations and first-time positivity rate though nowhere near as high as during the summer and currently in northern states, according to data released by the State Department of Health on Friday.
Florida's coronavirus deaths increased by 325, one week after 153, which is the lowest since early in the pandemic last year, as cases rose 12,984, which is a little more than 2,000 from the past week and the highest since 14,564 Oct. 22. Also, the 1,383 hospitalizations are about 150 more than a record-low Nov. 29 with the first-time positivity rate at 2.6% compared with 2.5% the previous week after back-to-back all-time lows of 2.4%,
The state reported 11.0% of youths 5-11 have been vaccinated, up from 9.0% the week before, 8.0% previously and 2.6% four weeks ago.
Because of the Thanksgiving holiday the Florida Department of Health releases its usual Friday report one week ago Tuesday.
On Friday, the department reported deaths reached 62,026 statewide. One week ago the 153 was the lowest since it rose from 63 in one week to 208 in the weekend ending April 2,020, less than one month after the first fatality. It rose 172 to 37,985 in the weekend ending July 8.
Two weeks ago the increase was 467 after 384 and 363, which was the fewest since 282 on July 23.
Residents' cases have reached 3,710,507 with the increase 321 more than 10,663 the week before and 9,792 one week earlier, which was the lowest since the state went to weekly reports on June 4.
The 1,994 seven-day moving daily average compared with 1,554 seven days earlier. The 1,224 Nov. 27 was lowest since 1,191 June June 9, 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The hospitalizations are 50 more than 1,343 one week ago and the record-low 1,228 late last month, a fraction of record 17,295 on Aug. 19. Last year the lowest was 2,031 on Oct. 17.
The state listed vaccination data for those 5-11 is 185,556 compared with 158,017 one week earlier. Five out of six adults (84.5%) have at least one vaccination shot, a rise of 1.0 percentage one week ago, and those 12 and older at 82.6%.
Five weeks ago, Florida became the third state to pass 60,000 residents' deaths from coronavirus, Florida is behind California and Texas, each with more than 70,000, but ahead of New York in third place. Florida is among three states with at least 3 million cases, also ahead of California and Texas.
The state passed 50,000 deaths on Aug. 31.
The weekly first-time infection positivity rate is one-tenth of a record 20.5% during the summer. The lowest daily rate this year was 3.03% on May 25 — when the state was reporting this data. In the week of May 17-30, 2020, before testing ramped up, it was below 3.0% for eight days, including 0.62% one day for an average of 2.82%. It has been under the 5.0% state target rate seven weeks in a row.
Increased cases this past week are 8.5% of a record 152,760 13 weeks ago.
All South Florida counties are below the target 5%: Palm Beach County 2.6% (2.3% last week), Martin 3.2% (2.6% last week), St. Lucie 2.3% (2.5% last week), Indian River 3.2$ (2.7% last week), Okeechobee 3.3% (1.7% last week), Broward 2.6% (2.1% last week) and Miami-Dade 2.0% (1.8% last week), which has the most deaths in the state at 9,206 in a report posted this week by the CDC.
The 30-39 age group has the most new cases at 2,223 one week after 1,862. The 5-11 group has 887 new cases with a 3.5% first-time positivity rate, the highest of the groups. In the 12-19 age group there are 960 new cases and only 57% fully vaccinated (the youngest age recently to get the shots). Cases for those under 5 are 460. Conversely, the positivity rate is 1.9% for those 65 and older with 90% fully vaccinated.
Deaths can take several days or even weeks to be reported to the state so the figures will fluctuate.
The state set a record for most deaths in one day: 425 on Aug. 27. Until the recent spike, the record was 242 on Aug. 4, 2020.
The record increase was 276 on Aug. 11 when the state was giving daily reports.
The highest seven-day moving average is 402 daily (2,814 weekly) on Sept. 1. Until the spike, the record was 227 (1,589 weekly) only Aug. 5, 2020.
Last year the highest weekly seven-day increase was 1,589 (227 daily) on Aug. 5, 2020, according to the CDC. The first-time daily positivity rate last year was 9.04%. Earlier this year it was less than 5%.
Until Friday's report 11 weeks ago, deaths had surpassed 2,000 four weeks in a row: 2,340 after 2,468, 2,448, 2,345. Last week's increase was 363 and the previous week 644.
The state listed 36 deaths occurred in the past week with 35 the previous week and 433 12 weeks ago. In newly reported deaths, children under 16 years old remained at 31 since the pandemic, with 2 more among those 16-29 for a total of 433.
The new cases in the state over one week were 13,530, one week after 10,892 and two weeks after 9,663, the lowest since the state week to weekly reports, which is different than 12,984 increase because of revisions. It was 12,880 six weeks ago, 11,797 June 11 and 11,901 June 4.
The daily cases record is 27,730 reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Aug. 26.
On Sept. 1 the new cases were 21,541, the last time it was above 21,000.
Cases have been been below 10,000 since Sept. 22. That includes 2,460 most recently, one day after 2,625, the most since 2,660 Oct. 19. On Nov. 7, it was listed as 271, the lowest since 176 March 23, 2020.
The CDC lists the seven-day moving average record 2`1,651 on Aug. 16.
Cases weekly reached 109,816 (`15,688 daily) on Jan. 10 until the spike.
The CDC is now only reflecting the date of occurrence for cases and deaths rather than when reported to the Florida Department of Health. It can take several days or even weeks for the state to receive a report of a death. The CDC twice a week had been revising the previous cumulative totals as more data are reported. It was back adjusted Friday.
The state has never listed increases on its since disbanded website and reports as media outlets, including WPTV, did the math each day.
Here are cases and first-time positivity rates for South Florida counties.
Palm Beach County: Cases: 229,224 residents (942 new, 721 past week). First-time positivity average in past week: 2.6%.
St. Lucie County: Cases: 48,317 residents (131 new, 115 past week). First-daily positivity in past week: 2.3%
Martin County: Cases: 20,504 residents (83 new, 63 past week). First-daily positivity in past week: 3.2%
Indian River County: Cases: 22,399 residents (76 new, 54 past week). First-daily positivity in past week: 3.2%
Okeechobee County: 7,437 residents (18 new, 7 past week). First-daily positivity in past week: 3.3%.
Broward County: Cases: 363,001 residents (1,524 new, 1,072 past week). First-daily positivity in past week: 2.6%.
Miami-Dade County: 683,842 residents (2,771 new, 2,030 past week). First-daily positivity in past week: 2.0%.
On June 4, Florida switched to weekly reports from daily -- the first state in the nation reporting any data every seven days. In addition, the state's dashboard was removed, as well as current hospitalization data. Michigan and Ohio, which are in the top 10 for most deaths, report fatalities only a few days per week.
According to data received by the CDC Thursday, U.S. deaths rose 1,196 and cases were up 133,144 with Florida accounting for 1.8%.
The first-time daily positivity rate reached 7.8% this summer. The daily record was 23.38% on Dec. 28.
The state, which is the third most-populous with 16.5% of the population, is third in the nation, behind California with 74,509, with 77 in the past day reported, Texas with 73,337, including a daily increase of 110 and ahead of New York with 58,072, with a rise of 143 Friday.
Florida is third in cases behind California with 4,867,604, a rise of 6,252 and Texas with 4,364,711 including 5,017 Friday.
The overall first-time positivity rate is 20.3%, with a drop of .02%.
The state reports don't include nonresidents' deaths and cases.
The weekly reports also don't list deaths for each county though it is now available by the CDC but include other data:
In other data, the state reported there are 31 deaths under 16 (no change) and 502,798 cases (501`,133 previous week). At the other extreme, for 65 and older there are 46,272 deaths (46,026 previous week), which is 74.5% of total and 480,808 cases (478,923 previous week), which is 13.0% of total.
The state's mortality rate (cases vs. deaths) was 1.7% (no change) including 9.6% for 65 and older but less than 1% in younger ages except 2.5% for 60-64. It is 1.6% in the United States and 2.0% worldwide.
In deaths per million, Florida is 2,887 (ninth in nation), U.S. 2,468, world 68.1. Mississippi is first at 3,470, Alabama second at 3,313, New Jersey third at 3,214. New York, which had been second for most of the pandemic behind New Jersey, is now sixth at 3,014.
Here are the deaths in the past week, according to the CDC: Pennsylvania 622, California 513, Arizona 471, Michigan 470, 9, Ohio 424, Texas 419, Tennessee 400.
Florida's deaths are 7.8% of the total in the U.S. total and 7.5% of the cases. The state comprises 6.6% of the U.S. population.
Since the first two cases were announced on March 1, 2020, Florida's total has surged to 17.3% of the state's 21.48 million population, 15th in cases per million behind No. 1 North Dakota. In cases per 100,000 for seven days, Florida is 47th at 63.1 with New Hampshire No. 1 at 671.3, Rhode Island No. 2 at 612, Michigan No. 3 at 567.6, Minnesota No. 4 at 549.4, Maine fifth at 500.8, Iowa sixth at 499.0, according to the CDC.
Here are the cases in the path week: Michigan 56,685, Pennsylvania 53,002, Ohio 52,716,New York (not city) 50,414, Illinois 49,695, California 46,075
The CDC has directed states to generally count one case per person unless the virus was contracted again more than 90 days. Florida doesn't report re-infections.
Florida is third in total tests at 44,408,723 with California No. 1 at 98,907,364. Some people have taken more than one test.
In one week, there were 467,283 tests, which is 66,755 daily. Last week it was 351,736. On Dec. 23 there were a record 150,587 tests in one day.
Hospitalizations were 12,651 14 weeks ago, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health. Of the 262 hospitals reporting, 2.38% are occupied with COVID-19 patients and 80.42% (47,641) with all patients of the 59,020 total beds. The day before 257 hospitals reported data.
Florida is 15th in U.S. with covid hospitalizations with Pennsylvania first with 4,962 (16.35%), Michigan second with 4,743 (20.7%), Ohio third with 4,733 (15.25%), New York fourth with 4,432 (9.19%), California fifth with 3,766 (5.83%), Texas sixth with 3,624 (5.38%).
The U.S. coronavirus occupancy is 64,147 at 8.62% compared with 59,170 one week ago.
In state vaccination data from the CDC, 84.5% of Florida's population 18 and older has had at least one dose (14,566,198) and 72.8% fully vaccinated (12,564,962). President Joe Biden had set a nationwide goal of 70% vaccinated by July 4 with at least one dose by adults and the current figure is 84.1%. Totally vaccinated is 71.9%.
In addition, the highest percentage is now listed as 95% after some were as high as 99%.
Forty-three states achieving the 70% standard (Ohio added in past week) are New Hampshire (95.0%), Massachusetts (95.0%), Connecticut (95.0%), Pennsylvania (95.0%), Hawaii (95.0%), Vermont (95.0%), Rhode Island (95.0%), West Virginia (95.00%), Maine (93.6%), New Jersey (93.9%), California (93.4%), New York (93.1%), New Mexico (91.2%), Maryland (90.0%), Virginia (88.3%), Delaware (86.8%), Washington (85.7%), North Carolina (85.6%), Florida (84.5%), Colorado (83.7%), Oregon (82.9%), South Dakota (83.0%), Minnesota (81.5%), Illinois (81.4%), Utah (81.1%), Kansas (80.8%), Nevada (80.4%), Texas (78.2%), Nebraska (77.9%), Wisconsin (77.8%), Oklahoma (78.0%), Arizona (76.7), Alaska (76.1%), Iowa (75.4%), Arkansas (73.1%), Kentucky (72.9%), Michigan (72.6%), South Carolina (72.7%), Missouri (72.2%), Georgia (72.0%), North Dakota (71.4%), Montana (71.3), Ohio (70.0%).
West Virginia jumped significantly from two weeks being listed at 64.6%.
The three worst percentages: Wyoming 66.0%, Mississippi at 66.4%, Indiana at 68.0%.
Also reaching the benchmark are Guam (95.0%), Republic of Pau (95.0%), District of Columbia (95.0%), Puerto Rico (94.6), American Samoa (94.5%), Northern Mariana Islands (92.8%).
The CDC is now listing percentages for those 5 and older: one shot 15,633,120 (76.9%) and fully vaccinated 13,370,770 (65.7%).
For those 12 and older in Florida, 82.6% had at least one dose (15,438,902) and the complete series is 71.1% (13,286,797).
For the total population, the percentage is 72.8% (15,640,854) and the complete series is 62.3% (13,372,404).
The state considers fully vaccinated two doses for Pfizer and Moderna and one for Johnson & Johnson.
In boosters, 26.4% of adults in Florida (3,312,470) and 27.8 in the United States (51,692,082) have been vaccinated