WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Florida's coronavirus cases of residents climbed by around 4.5 times in one week to 124,861, including a daily-record 31,758 Friday as the omicron variant is spreading worldwide. But deaths rose only 122 in a week, among the lowest since the pandemic, after 194 the previous seven days.
Also, the positivity rate soared to 13.85% from 5.4% the previous week, including 17.1% in Palm Beach County, as hospitalizations are 2,191, the most since late October but one-eighth of a record in late August.
On Friday, the State Department of Health reported a total of 3,864,213 residents' infections. One week ago 28,841 additional cases were reported and three weeks ago it was 10,663, which was the fewest since the state went to weekly reports June 4. The state daily record was 27,669 new cases Aug. 26 during the height of the delta variant.
Florida's deaths total 62,342. Three weeks ago the increase was 153.
The new cases in the state over one week were 125,201, one week after 29,568, two weeks after 13,530 and four weeks after 9,663, the lowest since the state week to weekly reports, which is different than the increase because of revisions.
The 111,860 new cases in Palm Beach County are more than the total of 10,873 in the week ending Sept 3.
The record for increase in the state was 152,760 15 weeks ago.
The CDC or state don't break down cases by the variant, including omicron, the highly contagious strain was reported on Nov. 24 South Africa. The delta strain became dominant in the summer when cases and deaths spiked in Florida. State data isn't broken down by variant, break-through cases (those vaccinated) reinfections.
The hospitalizations are 607 more than a week ago's 1,584. The record low 1,228 was Nov. 29. The hospitalizations are a fraction of record 17,295 on Aug. 19. Last year the lowest was 2,031 on Oct. 17.
The first-time positivity rate rate was 2.6% two weeks ago with the record low 2.1% four weeks ago. Before one week ago, the last time it was above the 5% target rate was 6.6% on Sept. 24.
The state reported 14.0% of youths 5-11 have been vaccinated, up from 12% the week earlier. The state listed vaccination data for those 5-11 is 234,601 compared with 208,421 one week earlier. Nearly six of seven adults (85.5%) have at least one vaccination shot, a rise of 0.5 percentage one week ago, and those 12 and older at 83.6%.
Cases
On Nov. 30 the 9,792 increase the lowest since the state went to weekly reports on June 4.
Cases have climbed tremendously from 1,948 11 days ago then to 3,030, 4,104, 6,835, 8,785, 10,284, 10,115, 10,115, 16,049, 20,178, 26,811. Twice week a CDC revises new daily cases in data provided by the state.
And the CDC is taking a holiday break from reporting full data with the next report no due out until Monday.
The daily seven-day average has risen to 14,619, which is the most since 15,565 on Sept. 7.
After a peak in early September, cases had subsided to as low at 1,224 on Nov. 27 with only 686 reported on Nov. 26.
On Nov. 30 the 9,792 increase was the lowest since the state went to weekly reports on June 4.
In the past few weeks all South Florida counties were below the target 5% rate. Now it's none. The rates are 17.1% in Palm Beach County, 11.8% in St. Lucie, 10.9% in Martin, 7.1% in Indian River, 7.1% in Okeechobee, 19.1% in Broward and 16.6% in Miami-Dade, which has the most deaths at 9,234.
The 20-29 group has the most new cases at 30,425 one week after 6,976 and the highest positivity rate at 20.7. The 30-39 age group is 26,032, plus a 17.7% rate. The 5-11 group has 5,860 new cases with a 10.8% first-time positivity rate. In the 12-19 age group there are 11,677 new cases and only 58% fully vaccinated (the youngest age recently to get the shots). Cases for those under 5 are 2,529. Conversely, the positivity rate is 6.4% for those 65 with 9,047 cases and older with 90% fully vaccinated.
On Sept. 1 the new cases were 21,520, the last time it was above 21,000 until this week.
On Nov. 7, there were 271 cases, the lowest since 176 March 23, 2020.
The CDC lists the seven-day moving average record 2`1,644 on Aug. 16.
Cases weekly reached 109,816 (`15,688 daily) on Jan. 10 until the spike.
Deaths
Three weeks ago the 153 rise was the lowest since it rose from 63 in one week to 208 in the weekend ending April 2,020, less than one month after the first fatality. It rose 172 to 37,985 in the weekend ending July 8.
Seven weeks ago, Florida became the third state to pass 60,000 residents' deaths from coronavirus. Florida is behind California and Texas, each with more than 70,000, but ahead of New York in third place. Those four are among three states with at least 3 million cases.
The state passed 50,000 deaths on Aug. 31.
Deaths can take several days or even weeks to be reported to the state so the figures will fluctuate.
The state set a record for most deaths in one day: 425 on Aug. 27. Until the recent spike, the record was 242 on Aug. 4, 2020.
The record increase was 276 on Aug. 11 when the state was giving daily reports.
The highest seven-day moving average is 402 daily (2,814 weekly) on Sept. 1. Until the spike, the record was 227 (1,589 weekly) only Aug. 5, 2020.
Last year the highest weekly seven-day increase was 1,589 (227 daily) on Aug. 5, 2020, according to the CDC. The first-time daily positivity rate last year was 9.04%. Earlier this year it was less than 5%.
Until Friday's report 13 weeks ago, deaths had surpassed 2,000 four weeks in a row: 2,340 after 2,468, 2,448, 2,345.
The state listed 39 deaths occurred in the past week with also 39 the previous week and 433 13 weeks ago. In newly reported deaths, children under 16 years old remained at 31 since the pandemic, with those 16-29 rising by five for a total of 438.
The CDC is now only reflecting the date of occurrence for cases and deaths rather than when reported to the Florida Department of Health. It can take several days or even weeks for the state to receive a report of a death. The CDC twice a week had been revising the previous cumulative totals as more data are reported. It was back adjusted Friday.
The state has never listed increases on its since disbanded website and reports as media outlets, including WPTV, did the math each day.
Positivity rate
The weekly first-time infection positivity rate hit a record 20.5% during the summer. The lowest daily rate this year was 3.03% on May 25 — when the state was reporting this data. In the week of May 17-30, 2020, before testing ramped up, it was below 3.0% for eight days, including 0.62% one day for an average of 2.82%. It had been under the 5.0% state target rate seven weeks in a row.
The first-time daily positivity rate reached 7.8% this summer. The daily record was 23.38% on Dec. 28.
Palm Beach County: Cases: 243,550 residents (11,860 new, 2,445 past week). First-time positivity average in past week: 17.1% (6.5% previous week).
St. Lucie County: Cases: 49,332residents (853 new, 191 past week). First-daily positivity in past week: 11.8% (past week 3.5%).
Martin County: Cases: 21,044 residents (443 new, 106 past week). First-daily positivity in past week: 10.9% (previous 3.8%).
Indian River County: Cases: 22,684 residents (217 new, 81 past week). First-daily positivity in past week: 7.1% (previous 3.4%).
Okeechobee County: 7,481 residents (39 new, 8 past week). First-daily positivity in past week: 7.1% (previous week 2.1%).
Broward County: Cases: 391,238sidents (23,575 new, 4,770 past week). First-daily positivity in past week: 19.1% (previous week 6.9%).
Miami-Dade County: 747,820 residents (52,468 new, 11,680 past week). First-daily positivity in past week: 16.6% (previous 7.0%).
Nationwide
On June 4, Florida switched to weekly reports from daily -- the first state in the nation reporting any data every seven days. In addition, the state's dashboard was removed, as well as current hospitalization data. Michigan and Ohio, which are in the top 10 for most deaths, report fatalities only a few days per week.
On Wednesday, the CDC reported a total of 243,817 cases in the U.S.. This was one day after 205,076 and two days after 291,671, which was the most since the record 294,015 Jan. 8. The seven-day moving average had dropped to 11,518 on June 19.
Deaths rose by 1,522, one day after 2,170, the most since 2,230 Oct. 8.
The state, which is the third most-populous with 16.5% of the population, is third in the nation, behind California with 75,461, including 78 in the past day reported, and Texas with 74,092, including a daily increase of 89 Thursday and ahead of New York with 58,936, with a rise of 58 Friday.
Florida is third in cases behind California with 4,990,016, a rise of 20,201 and Texas with 4,457,359 including 12,476 Thursday. New York reported a record 44,431 cases, shattering the mark of 38,835 the day before. Until the surge the record was 19,578 on Jan. 8.
States reporting records Friday were Pennsylvania with 13,286, Ohio with 14,414, New Jersey with 15,630, Massachusetts with 10,040. Many states didn't report data Friday.
The overall first-time positivity rate is 20.7%, with a 0.4% change.
The state reports don't include nonresidents' deaths and cases.
The weekly reports also don't list deaths for each county though it is now available by the CDC but include other data:
In other data, the state reported there are 31 deaths under 16 (no change) and 518,914 cases (505,801 previous week). At the other extreme, for 65 and older there are 46,474 deaths (46,390 previous week), which is 74.5% of total and 492,264 cases (480,808 previous week), which is 12.7% of total.
The state's mortality rate (cases vs. deaths) was 1.6% (down 0.1) including 9.6% for 64 and older but less than 1% in younger ages except 2.5% for 60-64. It is 1.6% in the United States and 1.9% worldwide.
In deaths per million, Florida is 2,903 (13th in nation), U.S. 2,496, world 687.6. Mississippi is first at 3,492, Alabama second at 3,348, Arizona's 3,285 moving past New Jersey's 3,248 at 3,228. New York, which had been second for most of the pandemic behind New Jersey, is now sixth at 3,056..
Here are the deaths in the past week, according to the CDC: Pennsylvania 796, Ohio 683, Arizona 492, California 490, Texas 435, Indiana 424, Michigan 414, Illinois 406.
Florida's deaths are 7.7% of the total in the U.S. total and 7.5% of the cases. The state comprises 6.6% of the U.S. population.
Since the first two cases were announced on March 1, 2020, Florida's total has surged to 18.0% of the state's 21.48 million population, 15th in cases per million behind No. 1 North Dakota. In cases per 100,000 for seven days, Florida is 11th at 476.5 (one week after 38th at 137.7) with New York City No. 1 at 1,123.5, District of Columbia 1,104.4, Rhode Island at 856.8 , according to the CDC. The rest of New York is 628.1.
Here are the cases in the path week: New York city 94,360, Illinois 80,927, Ohio 71,702, New York (not city) 69,439, California 61,329, Texas 59,051. U.S. cases Wednesday 243,817, Monday 2891,671 (most since record 294,015 Jan. 8).
The CDC has directed states to generally count one case per person unless the virus was contracted again more than 90 days. Florida doesn't report re-infections.
Florida is third in total tests at 45,450,999 with California No. 1 at 102,879550,. Some people have taken more than one test.
In one week, there were 587,991, tests, which is 81,999 daily. Last week it was 492,684. On Dec. 23 there were a record 150,587 tests in one day. Rapid tests are not included in the statistics.
Hospitalizations
Of the 248 Florida hospitals reporting, 3.99% are occupied with COVID-19 patients and 75.43% (42,048) with all patients of the 55,747 total beds. The day before 240 hospitals reported data.
The record low was 1,228 on Nov. 29.
Florida is 10th in U.S. with covid hospitalizations with New York first with 5,524 (11.79%), Ohio second with 5,107 (16.86%), Pennsylvania third with 4,993 (15.99%), Illinois fourth with 4,155 (13.82%), Texas fifth with 4,091 (6.09%), California sixth with 4,044 (6.36%).
The U.S. coronavirus occupancy is 71,490 at 9.53% compared with 68,900 one week ago.
Vaccinations
In state vaccination data from the CDC, 85.5% of Florida's population 18 and older has had at least one dose (14,754,441) and 73.5% fully vaccinated (12,668,796. President Joe Biden had set a nationwide goal of 70% vaccinated by July 4 with at least one dose by adults and the current figure is 84.9%. Totally vaccinated is 72.6%.
In addition, the CDC is now capping percentages at 95%.
Forty-four states achieving the 70% standard (Alabama added in past week) are New Hampshire (95.0%), Massachusetts (95.0%), Connecticut (95.0%), Hawaii (95.0%), Vermont (95.0%), Rhode Island (95.0%), New Jersey (95.0%), Maine (95.0%), California (95.0%), New York (95.0%), New Mexico (93.0%), Maryland (91.3%), Pennsylvania (89.5%), Virginia (89.6%), North Carolina (88.9%), Delaware (88.2%), Washington (86.7%), Florida (85.5%), Colorado (84.9%), South Dakota (84.9%), Oregon (83.9%), Minnesota (82.3%), Illinois (82.4%), Kansas (82.1%), Utah (82.0%), Nevada (81.7%), Oklahoma (79.4%), Texas (79.2%), Nebraska (78.7%), Wisconsin (78.7%), Arizona (77.8), Alaska (76.8%), Iowa (76.3%), North Dakota (74.5%), Arkansas (74.0%), Kentucky (73.7%), South Carolina (73.7%), Michigan (73.5%), Missouri (73.3%), Georgia (72.7%), West Virginia (71.7%), Montana (72.2%), Ohio (70.6%), Alabama (70.0%).
West Virginia has been adjusted up and down significantly frequently.
The six worst percentages: Wyoming 66.9%, Mississippi at 67.0%, Indiana at 68.8%, Idaho 69.1%, Louisiana 69.2%, Tennessee 69.7%
Also reaching the benchmark are Guam (95.0%), Republic of Pau (95.0%), District of Columbia (95.0%), Puerto Rico (95.0), American Samoa (95.0%), Northern Mariana Islands (94.9%).
The CDC is now listing percentages for those 5 and older: In Florida one shot 15,879,793 (78.1%) and fully vaccinated 13,539,703 (66.6%) in Florida
For those 12 and older in Florida, 83.6% had at least one dose (15,637,530) and the complete series is 71.7% (13,400,052).
For the total population, the percentage is 74.0% (15,887,600,) and the complete series is 63.0% (13,541,346).
The state considers fully vaccinated two doses for Pfizer and Moderna and one for Johnson & Johnson.
In boosters, 31.4% of adults in Florida (3,977,645) and 34.2% in the United States (64,192,194) have been vaccinated.
