WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Florida's coronavirus situation is the best in several months, including an all-time low weekly first-time positivity rate and hospitalizations with cases the lowest in nearly five months and deaths, which lag, the fewest in 3 1/2 months. Also, the state reported 2.6% of youths 5-11 have been vaccinated.
In the weekly report released by the Florida Department of Health on Friday, the state's deaths reached 60,697, which is an increase of 363 in one week, the fewest since 282 on July 23 but better than 409 on July 30. Residents' cases have reached 3,668,077, which is an increase of 10,302, one week after 10,498 and the lowest since 10,105 on June 18. The infection rate is 2.5%, one week after a low of 2.6%.
The 1,466 hospitalizations are the lowest since tracking began, a fraction of record 17,295 on Aug. 19 and 266 fewer than one week ago at 1,732. Last year the lowest was 2,031 on Oct. 17.
For the first time, the state listed vaccination data for those 5-11, which began last week: 44,694. More than four-fifths of adults (82.1%) have at least one vaccination shot, a rise of 0.6 percentage in one week, and those 12 and older at 80.2%.
Last week, Florida became the third state to pass 60,000 residents' deaths from coronavirus, gaining 664 in one week, which is the first time under 100 deaths daily in three months. 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% three months ago. It was a record-low 3.0% two weeks, the smallest since the state went to weekly statistics on June 4. The lowest daily rate this year was 3.03% on May 25. 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 six weeks in a row.
Increased cases this past week are 6.9% of a record 152,760 nine weeks ago.
All South Florida counties are below the target 5%: Palm Beach County 2.5%, Martin 2.6%, St. Lucie 2.4%, Indian River 2.2%, Okeechobee 2.6%, Broward 2.2% and Miami-Dade 1.7%, which has the most deaths in the state at 9,019.
The 30-39 age group has the most new cases at 1,720 one week after 1,697. The 5-11 group has 1,013 new cases with a 3.8% first-time positivity rate, the highest of the groups. In the 12-19 age group the positivity rate is second highest at 3.2% with 952 new cases and only 56% fully vaccinated (the youngest age recently to get the shots). The number of cases for those under 5 were 431. Conversely, the positivity rate is 2.2% for those 65 and older with 88% 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: 417 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 392 daily (2,744 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 1,266 (181 daily) on Aug. 16, 2020. The first-time daily positivity rate last year was 9.04%. Earlier this year it was less than 5%.
Until Friday's report seven 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 664 and the previous week 944.
The state listed 33 deaths occurred in the past week with 39 the previous week and 433 eight weeks ago. In newly reported deaths, children under 16 years old remained 29 since the pandemic for the third week in a row, with 5 more among those 16-29 for a total of 422.
The new cases in the state over one week were 10,747, the lowest since the state week to weekly reports, which is different than 10,302 increase because of revisions. It was 12,880 two weeks ago, 11,797 June 11 and 11,901 June 4, which is different than 10,498 increase because of revisions.
The daily cases record is 27,755 reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Aug. 26.
On Sept. 1 the new cases were 21,551, the last time it was above 21,000.
Cases have been been below 10,000 since Sept. 22. That includes 1,475 most recently, one day after 2551. On Monday it was listed as 271, the lowest since 176 March 23, 2020.
The CDC lists the seven-day moving average of 1,553 and it was 1,472 two days earlier, which the the lowest since also that number June 18, with the record 2`1,730 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, on Monday and Thursday, but it was just published once this week on Friday.
The state has never listed increases on its since disbanded website and reports as media outlets, including WPTV, did the math each day.
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, reports fatalities only a few days per week.
According to data received by the CDC Thursday, U.S. deaths rose 829 and cases were up 65,532 with Florida accounting for 1.8%. Some states didn't report beause it was Veterans Day.
The first-time daily positivity rate was 7.8 four months. 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 72,288, with 156 in the past day reported, Texas with 71,502 including a daily increase of 316 and ahead of New York with 56,907, with a rise of 73.
Florida is third in cases behind California with 4,719,596, a rise of 4,757 and Texas with 4,262,152 including 2,958 Friday.
The overall first-time positivity rate is 20.8%, which is a drop of 0.1.
The state reports don't include nonresidents' deaths and cases.
The weekly reports don't list deaths for each county though it is now available by the CDC but include other data:
Palm Beach County: Cases: 226,393 residents (713 new, 793 last week). First-time positivity average in past week: 2.5%.
St. Lucie County: Cases: 47,969 resident (105 new, 1434 last week). First-daily positivity in past week: 2.4%
Martin County: Cases: 20,253 residents (57 new, 65 last week). First-daily positivity in past week: 2.6%
Indian River County: Cases: 22,193 residents (49new, 41 last week). First-daily positivity in past week: 2.2%
Okeechobee County: 7,399 residents (11 new, 8 last week). First-daily positivity in past week: 2.6%.
Broward County: Cases: 358,779 residents (1,037 new, 1,099 last week). First-daily positivity in past week: 2.2%Miami-Dade County: 675,844 residents (2,124 new, 2,083 last week). First-daily positivity in past week: 1.7%.
In other data, the state reported there are 29 deaths under 16 (no change) and 496,920 cases (495,059 previous week). At the other extreme, for 65 and older there are 45,358 deaths (445,125 previous week), which is 71.4% of total and 474,356 cases (472,777 previous week), which is 12.9% of total.
The state's mortality rate (cases vs. deaths) was 1.7% (which gained 0.1 in a week) 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 2,770 (ninth in nation), U.S. 2,364, world 654.7. Mississippi is first at 3,423, Alabama second at 3,3260, New Jersey third at 3,169. New York, which had been second for most of the pandemic behind New Jersey, is now sixth at 2,954.
Florida's deaths are 8.0% of the total in the U.S. total and 7.8% 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 17.1% of the state's 21.48 million population, seventh in cases per million behind No. 1 North Dakota. In cases per 100,000 for seven days, Florida is 48th at 50.0 (last week last) and ahead of Louisiana (49.8) and Georgia (48.0%) with North Dakota No. 1 at 447.5, Minnesota No. 2 at 445.7, Alaska third at 412.4, Vermont fourth at 407.9, according to the CDC.
The CDC has directed states to generally count one case per person unless the virus was contracted again more than 90 days.
Florida is third in total tests at 42,637,918 with California No. 1 with 91,565,201. Some people have taken more than one test.
In one week, there were 402,109 tests, which is 57,444 daily. Last week it was 419,784. On Dec. 23 there were a record 150,587 tests in one day.
Hospitalizations are 1,466 compared with 12,651 10 weeks ago, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health. Of the 260 hospitals reporting, 2.63% are occupied with COVID-19 patients and 78.25% (46,095) with all patients of the 58,906 total beds. The day before 259 hospitals reported data. California first with 3,962 (6.2%), Texasat 3,293 (4.87%), Pennsylvania with 3,076 (10.02%), Ohio with 2,865 (9.25%), Michigan with 2,853 (12.6%), New York with 2,206 (4.63%), Arizona with 2,171 (12.82%), Coloradowith 1,529 (13.11%), Illinois with 1,528 (5.11%).
The U.S. coronavirus occupancy is 47,199 at 6.12% compared with 47,055 one week ago.
In state vaccination data from the CDC, 82.1% of Florida's population 18 and older has had at least one dose (14,153,027) and 71.1% fully vaccinated (12,266,178). 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 81.1 Totally vaccinated is 70.4%.
Thirty-eight states achieving (plus two in pasted week with Georgia, South Carolina) the 70% standard are Pennsylvania (95.9%), Massachusetts (943%), Hawaii (94.1%), Connecticut (93.5%), New Hampshire (93.0%), Vermont (92.3%), Rhode Island (91.8%), New Jersey (90.5%), Maine (90.3%), California (90.1%), New York (88.8%), New Mexico (87.7%), Maryland (87.3%), Virginia (85.3%), Washington (83.7%), Delaware (83.1%), Florida (82.1%), Colorado (81.2%), Oregon (81.1%), Minnesota (79.6%), North Carolina (79.5%), Illinois (79.4%), Utah (79.1%), South Dakota (78.6%), Kansas (77.9%), Nevada (77.6%), Texas (76.3%), Nebraska (76.0%), Wisconsin (75.8%), Oklahoma (74.8%), Arizona (74.3, Alaska (73.9), Iowa (73.4%), Arkansas (71.2%), Kentucky (70.7%), Michigan (70.6%), Georgia (70.2%), South Carolina (70.1%)
The three worst percentages: West Virginia 58.6%, Wyoming 63.6%, Mississippi at 64.5%.
Also reaching the benchmark are Guam (99.9%), Republic of Pau (99.9%), American Samoa (93.6%), Puerto Rico (93.1), District of Columbia (89.4%), Northern Mariana Islands (89.4%).
For those 12 and older in Florida, 80.2% had at least one dose (15,001,775) and the complete series is 69.4% (12,966,638
For the total population, the percentage is 70.1% (15,049,327) and the complete series is 60.4% (12,968,507).