Florida now over 620,000 COVID-19 cases. Three South Florida counties report no deaths

The Florida Department of Health’s COVID-19’s dashboard reported 2,583 cases Sunday, pushing the pandemic total to 621,586.

Of the 14 deaths reported by the state, the fewest since 12 on June 22, only four come from South Florida and all were in Miami-Dade. The state’s death toll is 11,263.

Also, the positive test rates of both the state and each of South Florida’s counties continues to fall. The state’s average daily positive test rate for Aug. 23-29 was 5.7%, a 24% drop from the 7.5% average daily positive rate of Aug. 16-22.

South Florida counties

▪ Miami-Dade added 519 cases and the aforementioned four deaths, bringing its pandemic totals to 156,559 and 2,403, respectively.

After 12 consecutive days with a positive test rate under 10%, Miami-Dade’s average daily positive test rate fell significantly from the Aug. 16-22 average of 9.7% to this week’s 7.9%. And the county is only two days from the goal of 14 consecutive days under 10%, as stated on Miami-Dade’s New Normal Dashboard.

▪ Broward’s 186 cases moved its pandemic total to 70,950. The death roll stayed at 1,183.

As for the testing trends in Broward, they fell about along the lines of the state, 23.1% — 6.5% to 5.0%.

▪ Palm Beach County’s 115 new cases mean 41,865 have caught COVID-19 in Palm Beach. Of those people, 1,117 have died.

Palm Beach’s positive test trends didn’t fall as greatly as Miami-Dade or Broward, but did slide from a 5.3% average positive daily rate to this week’s 4.8%.

▪ Monroe had eight new confirmed cases, bringing its total to 1,727 with 16 deaths.

Current hospitalizations

As of the Sunday report from the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration, 3,800 people were currently hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19, a reduction of 22 people from Saturday.

There were no significant changes in the South Florida counties. Miami-Dade was down 10 to 694. Broward was down 14 to 470. Palm Beach was up 10 to 170. Monroe remained the same at 1.

Florida’s current 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.

By Miami-Dade’s count, hospitalizations have gone down 11 of the last 12 days and are at 807, 211 of which are in Intensive Care Unit beds.

Testing

Testing, like hospitalizations, helps officials determine the virus’ progress and plays a role in deciding whether it is safe to lift stay-at-home orders and loosen restrictions. Miami-Dade will allow indoor dining and casinos to reopen Monday.

Sunday, the state reported only 24,434 new people tested. Through the pandemic 4,606,568 residents and non-residents have been tested in Florida with a 13.5 positive test rate.

Miami-Dade mayor reopening casinos Monday, banking on COVID continuing to improve