Florida COVID update for Sunday: Over 7 million fully vaccinated, 3,231 new cases, 33 deaths

Sunday’s Florida Department of Health’s daily COVID-19 dashboard report showed 3,231 new cases and 33 total deaths, but only 660 cases in Miami-Dade and 339 in Broward County.

Those are the lowest numbers for South Florida’s two largest counties since Monday, April 12, when 388 and 204 cases were reported, respectively. Sunday is usually the day with the lowest case numbers and death toll because data tends to be collected and entered at a lower rate on the weekends.

For the coronavirus pandemic, Florida reports 2,269,806 cases, 35,731 resident deaths and 36,445 total deaths.

Saturday’s state-wide positive test rate was reported as 5.32% after three consecutive days under 5.0%.

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COVID vaccines in Florida and South Florida

▪ Florida: The state’s vaccination report says another 23,219 people have received either the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine or their second COVID vaccine dose of the two-shot vaccines, meaning 7,021,068 people are fully vaccinated.

▪ Miami-Dade County: The state reported 7,444 people completed their vaccinations, meaning 949,680 in Miami-Dade are fully vaccinated.

▪ Broward: Another 2,035 people completed their vaccinations, putting Broward’s completed vaccine total at 644,000.

▪ Palm Beach: After 2,417 people completed their vaccine treatment, 515,047 in Palm Beach County have completed a vaccine regimen.

▪ Monroe: Another 20 people completed their vaccine shot treatment. Overall, 25,152 have done so.

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Confirmed COVID-19 cases in South Florida

▪ Miami-Dade County reported 660 more people who tested positive and six more COVID-19 deaths, putting its pandemic totals at 490,099 cases and 6,983 deaths.

The positive test rate on Saturday was 4.57%, according to the county-by-county breakdown, the fifth consecutive day under 5% and the second lowest day of the last two weeks.

▪ Broward County reported another 339 cases and four deaths, moving its totals to 239,941 cases and 2,964 deaths.

The positive test rate was 4.29% on Saturday, the fifth consecutive day under 5%.

▪ Palm Beach County reported 205 new cases (145,331 for the pandemic) and zero deaths (2,788).

Saturday’s positive rate was 4.82%, ending a brief, two-day run of days under 4%, but stretching the run under 5% to five days.

▪ Monroe County reported 11 new cases and zero deaths. Pandemic totals in the Keys are 6,983 cases and 49 deaths.

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Current hospitalizations

Government officials use current hospitalizations to decide the next action in dealing with the pandemic. On the state level, this has been steadily falling over the last month.

The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration reports the number of patients hospitalized statewide with a “primary diagnosis of COVID.” The data, which is updated at least every hour, does not distinguish between the number of COVID-19 patients in hospital intensive care units and those in acute-care beds, which require less attention from nurses.

As of 2:46 p.m Sunday, the agency said there were 2,688 people hospitalized, a 21-person edge down from 2:31 p.m. Saturday. In South Florida, compared to Saturday, Miami-Dade was up 21 people to 434; Broward, down 31 to 369; Palm Beach, down eight to 188; and Monroe stayed at zero.

Florida’s hospitalization data does not always match the hospitalization data reported in Miami-Dade’s New Normal Dashboard. Officials say this could be for a number of reasons, including the frequency of daily updates.

Sunday, Miami-Dade’s New Normal Dashboard said hospitals reported 485 COVID-19 patients, three less than Saturday’s report, but 48 fewer than a week before. The number of patients in Intensive Care Unit beds was 131 at Sunday’s report, five more than Saturday’s report, but the same as what was reported seven days previous.