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State's weekly cases remain under 10,000; deaths' rise 467 more than week ago

Weekly first-time positivity rate drops to all-time low of 2.4%, hospitalizations down
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Posted at 7:02 PM, Nov 30, 2021
and last updated 2021-12-03 10:51:52-05

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Florida's coronavirus cases increased 9,792 in one week, the second time since the state went to non-daily reports on June 4 they were under 10,000, as deaths' rise was 83 more than the week before though significantly smaller than during the summer with the weekly report delayed four days because of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Also, hospitalizations this week are the lowest since the pandemic with the first-time positivity rate at an all-time low 2.4%.

The state reported 8.0% of youths 5-11 have been vaccinated, up from 6.0% the week before and 2.6% two weeks ago.

In the weekly report released by the Florida Department of Health on Tuesday, the state's deaths reached 61,548, which is an increase of 467, one week after 384 and two weeks after 363, the fewest since 282 on July 23. Residents' cases have reached 3,686,860, which 99 less than one week ago's 9,891 and two week ago at 10,302. The 1,264 daily is is two more than the day before, which the lowest since a 1,248 daily rolling weekly average in June 10, 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Tuesday's report.

The CDC reported on Tuesday reported 61,539 deaths and 3,691,420 cases. The state gave no explanation why the CDC's figure is less than the state from Friday.

The 1,242 hospitalizations are slightly more than the record 1,228 the day before, a fraction of record 17,295 on Aug. 19. Last year the lowest was 2,031 on Oct. 17. Last week 1,m466

The state listed vaccination data for those 5-11 is 137,520 compared with 97,499 one week earlier 44,694 previously. More than four-fifths of adults (83.5%) have at least one vaccination shot, a rise of 0.9 percentage in one week, and those 12 and older at 80.8%.

Three 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. Florida is among three states with at least 3 million cases, also ahead of California and Texas.

The state passed 50,000 deaths on Aug. 31.

The weekly first-time infection positivity rate is one-tenth of a record 20.5% three months ago. For two weeks in a row it was 2.5%. It was a record-low 3.0% four weeks ago, the smallest since the state went to weekly statistics on June 4. 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 has been under the 5.0% state target rate seven weeks in a row.

Increased cases this past week are 6.4% of a record 152,760 11 weeks ago.

All South Florida counties are below the target 5%: Palm Beach County 2.3%, Martin 2.2%, St. Lucie 2.5%, Indian River 2.1%, Okeechobee 2.4%, Broward 1.8% and Miami-Dade 1.6%, which has the most deaths in the state at 9,066 in a report one week ago.

The 30-39 age group has the most new cases at 1,579 one week after 1,814. The 5-11 group has 692 new cases with a 2.9% first-time positivity rate, the highest of the groups. In the 12-19 age group there are 599 new cases and only 57% fully vaccinated (the youngest age recently to get the shots). The number of cases for those under 5 were 313. Conversely, the positivity rate is 1.9% for those 65 and older with 89% fully vaccinated.

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: 419 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 399 daily (2,793 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 nine weeks ago, deaths had surpassed 2,000 four weeks in a row: 2,340 after 2,468, 2,448, 2,345. Last week's increase was 363 and the previous week 644.

The state listed 37 deaths occurred in the past week with 44 the previous week and 433 10 weeks ago. In newly reported deaths, children under 16 years old remained at 30 since the pandemic, with 4 more among those 16-29 for a total of 430.

The new cases in the state over one week were 9,663, one week after 10,828 and two weeks after 10,746, the lowest since the state week to weekly reports, which is different than 9,792 increase because of revisions. It was 12,880 four weeks ago, 11,797 June 11 and 11,901 June 4.

The daily cases record is 27,739 reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Aug. 26.

On Sept. 1 the new cases were 21,548, the last time it was above 21,000.

Cases have been been below 10,000 since Sept. 22. That includes 1,632 most recently, one day after 1,123. On Nov. 7, it was listed as 271, the lowest since 176 March 23, 2020.

The CDC lists the seven-day moving average record 2`1,677 on Aug. 16.

Cases weekly reached 109,816 (`15,688 daily) on Jan. 10 until the spike.

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.

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, reports fatalities only a few days per week.

According to data received by the CDC Thursday, U.S. deaths rose 1,661 and cases were up 119,404 with Florida accounting for 1.4%.

The first-time daily positivity rate reached 7.8% this summer. The daily record was 23.38% on Dec. 28.

The state, which is the third most-populous with 16.5% of the population, is third in the nation, behind California with 73,712, with 56 in the past day reported, Texas with 72,607, including a daily increase of 78 and ahead of New York with57,497, with a rise of 20 Friday.

Florida is third in cases behind California with 4,806,510, a rise of 4,667 and Texas with 4,416,162 including 6,441 Tuesday.

The overall first-time positivity rate is 20.5%, which is a drop of 0.2.

The state reports don't include nonresidents' deaths and cases.

The weekly reports 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 30 deaths under 16 (no change) and 499,672 cases (498,551 previous week). At the other extreme, for 65 and older there are 45,927deaths (45,622 previous week), which is 74.6% of total and 475,884 cases (475,884 previous week), which is 12.9% of total.

The state's mortality rate (cases vs. deaths) was 1.7% (no change) including 9.6% for 65 and older but less than 1% in younger ages except 2.5% for 60-64. It is 1.6% in the United States and 2.0% worldwide.

In deaths per million, Florida is 2,833 (ninth in nation), U.S. 2,425, world 671.3. Mississippi is first at 3,456, Alabama second at 3,287, New Jersey third at 3,196. New York, which had been second for most of the pandemic behind New Jersey, is now sixth at 2,983.

Florida's deaths are 7.9% of the total in the U.S. total and 7.6% 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 17.1% of the state's 21.48 million population, 14th in cases per million behind No. 1 North Dakota. In cases per 100,000 for seven days, Florida is 49th at 41.2 (50th last week) ahead of Alabama 40.4 with Vermont No. 1 at 495.2, Michigan second at 479.3, New Hampshire third at 467.2, Minnesota No. 4 at 422.4, according to the CDC.

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 43,768,993 with California No. 1. Some people have taken more than one test.

In one week, there were 413,863 tests, which is 59,552 daily. Last week it was 407,328. On Dec. 23 there were a record 150,587 tests in one day.

Hospitalizations are 1,242 compared with 12,651 12 weeks ago and 1,383 11 days ago, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health. Of the 227 hospitals reporting, 2.32% are occupied with COVID-19 patients and 74.42% (40,547) with all patients of the 54,360 total beds. The day before 241 hospitals reported data.

Florida is 11th in U.S. with covid hospitalizations with Michigan first with 4,428 (20.37%), Pennsylvania second with 4,360 (15.64%), Ohio third with 4,156 (15.01%), California fourth with 3,473 (5.84%), Texas fifth with 3,382 (5.71%), New York sixth with 3,265 (7.54%), Arizona seventh with 2,733 (17.84%), Illinois eighth with 2,381 (8.32%), Wisconsin ninth with 1,562 (12.83%), Colorado 10th with 1,509 (13.7%).

The U.S. coronavirus occupancy is 56,691 at 8.09% compared with 50,569 11 days ago.

In state vaccination data from the CDC, 83.5% of Florida's population 18 and older has had at least one dose (14,396,912) and 72.2% fully vaccinated (12,461,441). 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 82.7. Totally vaccinated is 71.1%.

Forty-one states achieving the 70% standard (North Dakota, Montana added in past week) are New Hampshire (99.9%), Massachusetts (96.6%), Pennsylvania (95.5%), Connecticut (95.7%), Hawaii (95.3%), Vermont (94.4%), Rhode Island (93.9%), Maine (92.4%), New Jersey (92.3%), California (92.1%), New York (90.9%), New Mexico (89.8%), Maryland (88.9%), Virginia (87.1%), Delaware (85.4%), Washington (84.9%), Florida (83.5%), Colorado (82.7%), Oregon (82.1%), North Carolina (83.3%), South Dakota (81.4%), Minnesota (80.7%), Illinois (80.7%), Utah (80.0%), Kansas (79.7%), Nevada (79.3%), Texas (77.4%), Nebraska (77.2%), Wisconsin (77.0%), Oklahoma (76.6%), Arizona (75.7), Alaska (75.3%), Iowa (74.7%), Arkansas (72.3%), Kentucky (72.0%), Michigan (71.9%), South Carolina (71.7%), Georgia (71.3%), Missouri (71.1%), North Dakota (70.5%), Montana (70.5%).

The three worst percentages: West Virginia 64.0%, Wyoming 65.1%, Mississippi at 65.5%.

Also reaching the benchmark are Guam (99.9%), Republic of Pau (99.9%), American Samoa (94.0%), Puerto Rico (93.7), District of Columbia (92.9%), Northern Mariana Islands (91.1%).

The CDC is now listing percentages for those 5 and older: one shot 15,414,810 (75.8%) and fully vaccinated 13,182,713 (64.8%).

For those 12 and older in Florida, 81.6% had at least one dose (15,261,363) and the complete series is 70.5% (13,174,614).

For the total population, the percentage is 71.8% (15,422,450) and the complete series is 61.4% (13,184,332).

The state considers fully vaccinated two doses for Pfizer and Moderna and one for Johnson & Johnson.

In boosters, 21.3% of adults in Florida (2,652,610) and 22.4 in the United States (41,081,684) have been vaccinated