Coronavirus live updates: Here’s what to know in South Florida on August 9

Aaron Leibowitz
·2 min read

We’re keeping track of the latest news regarding the coronavirus in South Florida and around the state. Check back for updates throughout the day.

Miami-Dade numbers keep trending in right direction

3:34 p.m.: Positivity rates, hospitalizations and fire rescue calls continue to tick downward in Miami-Dade County, according to the county’s latest data released Sunday.

The positivity rate for COVID-19 tests on Saturday was 12.1%, the lowest for a single day in at least two weeks, bringing the county’s 14-day average to 15.1% — still above the 10% rate experts initially recommended to reopen businesses, but an improvement from rates above 25% for much of July.

The number of hospital patients admitted with COVID in Miami-Dade, as self-reported by hospitals, was 1,682, a decrease of 65 from Saturday and down from over 2,200 in late July.

State announces over 6,000 new cases, 77 deaths

10:57 a.m.: Florida’s Department of Health on Sunday confirmed 6,229 additional cases of COVID-19, pushing the state’s known total to 532,806. There were also 77 Florida resident deaths announced, bringing the statewide resident death toll to 8,186.

Miami-Dade County reported 244 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 27 new deaths, according to Florida’s Department of Health. The county now has 132,461 confirmed cases and 1,865 deaths.

Throughout the pandemic, the newly confirmed cases reported on Sundays have tended to be lower than the other days of the week because fewer people work in labs and enter data on the weekends.

Read the full story here.

CATCH UP TO START THE DAY

9:47 a.m.: Here are the coronavirus headlines to catch you up on what’s happening around South Florida and the state as Sunday begins.

▪ An injured Royal Caribbean Group crew member has been living in South Florida hotels since January despite repeatedly asking the company to send him home to Peru.

▪ The Florida Department of Health confirmed 8,502 new COVID-19 cases Saturday, ending a run of six consecutive days where Florida had reported fewer than 8,000 new cases.

▪ Coronavirus patient volume in Miami-Dade County has been slowly declining over the past two weeks, giving experts hope that the worst is over.