Florida COVID update for Wednesday: 59 total deaths, almost 2.5 million fully vaccinated

David J. Neal
·3 min read

The state of Florida’s COVID-19 dashboard reported 4,599 new cases and 59 total deaths Wednesday, 55 of which were residents. South Florida counties accounted for 32 of the 59 deaths.

Current hospitalizations saw a minimal drop after jumping early this week.

For the pandemic, Florida has had 1,989,024 total cases, 32,504 resident deaths and 33,120 total deaths.

The state’s positive test rate of 5.57% was the lowest in four days.

COVID vaccines in Florida and South Florida

▪ Florida: The state’s vaccination report says another 31,568 have received either the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine or their second COVID vaccine dose of the two-shot Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, meaning 2,496,435 are fully vaccinated.

▪ Miami-Dade County: The state reported 3,184 people completed their vaccinations, meaning 269,763 in Miami-Dade are fully vaccinated.

▪ Broward: Another 2,233 people completed their vaccinations, putting Broward’s completed vaccine total at 213,496

▪ Palm Beach: After 1,127 people completed their vaccine treatment, 235,555 in Palm Beach County have completed a vaccine regimen.

▪ Monroe: Another 57 people completed their vaccine shot treatment. Overall, 9,663 have done so.

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Confirmed COVID-19 cases in South Florida

▪ Miami-Dade County reported 961 more people who tested positive and 11 more COVID-19 deaths, putting its pandemic totals at 429,834 cases and 5,699 deaths.

The positive test rate on Tuesday was 5.86%, according to the county-by-county breakdown. Each of the last eight days has been between 5.77% and 5.93%.

▪ Broward County reported another 603 cases and 11 deaths, moving its totals to 205,473 cases and 2,569 deaths.

The positive test rate was 5.62% on Tuesday, the lowest since March 9.

▪ Palm Beach County reported 374 new cases (126,729 for the pandemic) and 10 deaths (2,586).

Tuesday’s positive rate was 5.31% after three straight days solidly in the 6% range.

▪ Monroe County reported 22 new cases and 0 deaths. Pandemic totals in the Keys are 6,161 cases and 47 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 1:16 p.m Wednesday, the agency said there were 3,007 people hospitalized, a 45-person bunny slide from 7:31 p.m. Tuesday. South Florida’s counties generally dropped from Tuesday: Miami-Dade was up four to 613; Broward, down three to 458; Palm Beach, down 10 to 188; and Monroe, down one to four.

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.

Wednesday, Miami-Dade’s New Normal Dashboard said hospitals reported 653 COVID-19 patients, down four from Tuesday’s report. The number of patients in Intensive Care Unit Beds was 170 at Wednesday’s report, up three from Tuesday’s report.

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