Florida COVID update: Most deaths happened in past 2 weeks, hospitalizations go down

Florida on Tuesday reported 111,621 cases and 365 new deaths to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention after not reporting data during the long holiday weekend, according to Miami Herald calculations of CDC data.

Of the deaths added, all were in the past 28 days, with about 85% of them having occurred in the last two weeks, according to Miami Herald calculations of CDC data.

In the past seven days, the state has added 92 deaths and 49,537 cases per day, on average, according to Herald calculations of CDC data. In all, Florida has recorded at least 5,153,539 confirmed COVID cases and 63,455 deaths.

The CDC normally backlogs cases and deaths for Florida on Mondays and Thursdays, when multiple days in the past had their totals changed. However, because of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, the backlog was added Tuesday. In August, Florida began reporting cases and deaths by the “case date” and “death date” rather than the date they were logged into the system.

FLORIDA COVID VACCINE RATES

About 13,786,379 eligible Floridians — 64.2% 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 2,216,671 people, or 81.6% of the county’s total population, are fully vaccinated.

▪ In Broward County, about 1,341,416 people are fully vaccinated, or 68.7% of the county’s population.

▪ In Palm Beach County, about 959,331 people are fully vaccinated, or 64.1% of the county’s population.

▪ In Monroe County, about 55,999 people are fully vaccinated, or 75.4% of the county’s population.

▪ In Manatee County, about 240,558 people are fully vaccinated, or 59.7% of the county’s population.

COVID-19 hospitalizations in Florida

There were 10,893 people hospitalized for COVID-19 in Florida, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Tuesday report. This data is reported from 224 Florida hospitals. The number of people hospitalized across the state is 372 fewer than the day prior, when 260 hospitals reported.

COVID-19 patients take up 20.81% of all inpatient beds in the latest report, compared to 19.52% among Monday’s reporting hospitals.

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.

Of the people hospitalized in Florida, 1,461 were in intensive-care units, a decrease of 25 from Monday. That represents about 24.28% of the state’s ICU beds, compared to 23.85% the previous day.

Tuesday’s Miami-Dade County report said there were 1,737 COVID patients in the county’s hospitals on Monday, an increase of 29 from the previous day. Of the 204 new COVID patients, 143 (70.1%) had not been vaccinated. Intensive care patients numbered 284, increased by 25 from a day earlier.

Broward County’s Tuesday report said there were 1,242 COVID patients in the county’s hospitals, a decrease of 159 patients compared to the day before.

Miami Herald staff writer Carli Teproff contributed to this report.