Florida COVID update for Sunday: Over 2.7 million fully vaccinated, 32 more people dead
The Florida Department of Health’s COVID-19 dashboard reported 3,987 new confirmed cases and 32 total deaths Sunday, case and death numbers in the same range as last Sunday.
Sunday usually the day with the lowest case numbers and death toll because data tends to be collected and entered at a lower rate on the weekends. This week’s numbers show 300 more people testing positive and one more person dying than on last Sunday’s report.
For the pandemic, Florida reports 2,008,349 cases, 32,742 resident deaths and 33,369 total deaths.
Saturday’s state-wide positive test rate of 6.23% was the highest in the last two weeks.
COVID vaccines in Florida and South Florida
▪ Florida: The state’s vaccination report says another 16,739 have received either the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine or their second COVID vaccine dose of the two-shot vaccines, meaning 2,713,248 are fully vaccinated.
▪ Miami-Dade County: The state reported 3,666 people completed their vaccinations, meaning 301,181 in Miami-Dade are fully vaccinated.
▪ Broward: Another 977 people completed their vaccinations, putting Broward’s completed vaccine total at 232,344.
▪ Palm Beach: After 925 people completed their vaccine treatment, 246,061 in Palm Beach County have completed a vaccine regimen.
▪ Monroe: Another 43 people completed their vaccine shot treatment. Overall, 10,381 have done so.
Confirmed COVID-19 cases in South Florida
▪ Miami-Dade County reported 900 more people who tested positive and one more COVID-19 death, putting its pandemic totals at 434,352 cases and 5,725 deaths.
The positive test rate on Saturday was 6.51%, according to the county-by-county breakdown, the second highest day in the last two weeks.
▪ Broward County reported another 516 cases and four deaths, moving its totals to 208,096 cases and 2,595 deaths.
The positive test rate was 6.38% on Saturday after four consecutive days under 6%.
▪ Palm Beach County reported 324 new cases (128,154 for the pandemic) and no deaths (2,596).
Saturday’s positive rate was 6.09% after four days in a row under 6%.
▪ Monroe County reported seven new cases and zero deaths. Pandemic totals in the Keys are 6,228 cases and 48 deaths.
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 3:02 p.m Sunday, the agency said there were 2,823 people hospitalized, a 30-person edge downward from 1:46 p.m. Saturday. While the state edged down, South Florida’s counties generally edged up: Miami-Dade remained at 554; Broward, up 13 to 453; Palm Beach, up four to 186; and Monroe, down one to five.
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.
Sunday, Miami-Dade’s New Normal Dashboard said hospitals reported 604 COVID-19 patients, a 30-person bounce from Saturday’s report and 13 less than a week ago. The number of patients in Intensive Care Unit Beds was 135 at Sunday’s report, down four from Saturday’s report and a 31-person plunge from seven days ago.
This story was originally published March 21, 2021 at 3:37 PM with the headline "Florida COVID update for Sunday: Over 2.7 million fully vaccinated, 32 more people dead."
