Sunday’s Florida COVID update: 5,520 new cases, 4.4 million people fully vaccinated

The Florida Department of Health’s COVID-19 dashboard reported 5,520 new confirmed cases, the most on a Sunday since February, and a rather strange counting of COVID deaths.

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. The April 11 report was the highest since Feb. 28’s 5,539.

Resident deaths on the state dashboard rose by seven and non-resident deaths number remained the same. But Miami-Dade alone reported 12 deaths and Broward and Palm Beach’s overall death tolls decreased by one and two, respectively.

For the pandemic, Florida reports 2,124,233 cases, 34,021 resident deaths and 34,683 total deaths.

Saturday’s state-wide positive test rate of 7.65% was higher than any other daily percentage since 7.65% on March 28..

A Hialeah walk-up COVID vaccine site goes from pop-up to open for two weeks

COVID vaccines in Florida and South Florida

▪ Florida: The state’s vaccination report says another 42,723 people have received either the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine or their second COVID vaccine dose of the two-shot vaccines, meaning 4,400,166 people are fully vaccinated.

▪ Miami-Dade County: The state reported 10,579 people completed their vaccinations, meaning 577,652 in Miami-Dade are fully vaccinated.

▪ Broward: Another 2,536 people completed their vaccinations, putting Broward’s completed vaccine total at 386,552.

▪ Palm Beach: After 3,733 people completed their vaccine treatment, 336,102 in Palm Beach County have completed a vaccine regimen.

▪ Monroe: Another 367 people completed their vaccine shot treatment. Overall, 16,433 have done so.

Confirmed COVID-19 cases in South Florida

▪ Miami-Dade County reported 1,160 more people who tested positive and 12 more COVID-19 deaths, putting its pandemic totals at 460,653 cases and 5,981 deaths.

The positive test rate on Saturday was 7.19%, according to the county-by-county breakdown, the seventh consecutive day between 7.03% and 7.31%.

▪ Broward County reported another 707 cases and had a death removed, perhaps erroneously reported, moving its totals to 223,152 cases and 2,720 deaths.

The positive test rate was 6.98% on Saturday, meaning the average daily positive test rate for the last five days is exactly 7.0%.

▪ Palm Beach County reported 350 new cases (136,108 for the pandemic) and subtracted two deaths from Saturday’s total (2,690).

Saturday’s positive rate was 6.36%, ending a run of three consecutive days of decreasing postitive test rate.

▪ Monroe County reported 12 new cases and zero deaths. Pandemic totals in the Keys are 6,642 cases and 50 deaths.

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 1:46 p.m Sunday, the agency said there were 3,102 people hospitalized, 86 more people than 2:02 p.m. Saturday and 244 more than April 4. South Florida’s counties had an overall rise compared to Saturday: Miami-Dade, up 29 to 574; Broward, down two to 424; Palm Beach, up 16 to 210; and Monroe, stayed the same at two.

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 608 COVID-19 patients, a 26-person bounce from Saturday’s report and 90 more than a week ago. The number of patients in Intensive Care Unit Beds was 125 at Sunday’s report, up three from Saturday’s report and up 11 from seven days previous.