Florida COVID update: COVID hospitalization rate declines as state adds 5 new deaths

Florida on Friday reported 30,606 new cases and five new deaths to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to Miami Herald calculations of CDC data.

In the past seven days, the state has added 152 deaths and 28,271 cases per day, on average, according to Herald calculations of CDC data. In all, Florida has recorded at least 5,478,894 confirmed COVID cases and 64,640 deaths.

FLORIDA COVID VACCINE RATES

About 13,953,387 eligible Floridians — 65% of the state’s population — have completed the two-dose series of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines or have completed Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

VACCINATIONS IN SOUTH FLORIDA, MANATEE COUNTY

Here’s how many people have been fully vaccinated in South Florida and Manatee County, according to the CDC:

▪ In Miami-Dade County, about 2,233,003 people, or 82.2% of the county’s total population, are fully vaccinated.

▪ In Broward County, about 1,351,775 people are fully vaccinated, or 69.2% of the county’s population.

▪ In Palm Beach County, about 965,171 people are fully vaccinated, or 64.5% of the county’s population.

▪ In Monroe County, about 56,603 people are fully vaccinated, or 76.3% of the county’s population.

▪ In Manatee County, about 242,610 people are fully vaccinated, or 60.2% of the county’s population.

COVID-19 hospitalizations in Florida

There were 9,868 people hospitalized for COVID-19 in Florida, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services report on Friday. This data is reported from 261 Florida hospitals. The number of people hospitalized across the state is 419 fewer than the day prior, when 256 hospitals reported.

COVID-19 patients take up 16.82% of all inpatient beds in the latest report, compared to 17.66% among Thursday’s reporting hospitals.

Of the people hospitalized across the state, 1,425 were in intensive-care units, a decrease of 39 from Thursday. That represents about 22.17% of the state’s ICU beds, compared to 22.85% the previous day.

Omicron, so far, is not as deadly as delta’s surge last summer. Hospitalizations have not approached records set during delta’s wave from July through September.

At delta’s August peak, more than 15,000 patients were hospitalized in Florida, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.

Friday’s Miami-Dade County report said there were 1,003 COVID patients in the county’s hospitals on Thursday, a decrease of 57 from the previous day. Of the 134 new COVID patients, 85 (63.43%) had not been vaccinated. Intensive care patients numbered 207, down two from a day earlier.

Broward County’s Friday report said there were 748 COVID patients in the county’s hospitals, a decrease of 79 patients compared to the day before.