Coronavirus

Florida COVID update: 900 more people in hospital, latest 7-day case average

Ryan Loeffler, left, a Broward County employee, hands out free at-home rapid COVID-19 tests at South Regional/Broward College Library in Pembroke Pines on Saturday, Jan. 8, 2022.
Ryan Loeffler, left, a Broward County employee, hands out free at-home rapid COVID-19 tests at South Regional/Broward College Library in Pembroke Pines on Saturday, Jan. 8, 2022. mocner@miamiherald.com

Florida on Wednesday reported 43,179 cases and three new deaths to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to Miami Herald calculations of CDC data.

In the past seven days, the state has added 91 deaths and 45,456 cases per day, on average, according to Herald calculations of CDC data. In all, Florida has recorded at least 5,196,718 confirmed COVID cases and 63,458 deaths.

FLORIDA COVID VACCINE RATES

About 13,715,557 eligible Floridians — 64.6% of the state’s population — have completed the two-dose series of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines or have completed Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine, according to the CDC.

VACCINATIONS IN SOUTH FLORIDA, MANATEE COUNTY

Here’s how many people have been fully vaccinated in South Florida and Manatee County, according to the CDC:

In Miami-Dade County, about 2,216,671 people, or 81.6% of the county’s total population, are fully vaccinated.

In Broward County, about 1,341,416 people are fully vaccinated, or 68.7% of the county’s population.

In Palm Beach County, about 959,331 people are fully vaccinated, or 64.1% of the county’s population.

In Monroe County, about 55,999 people are fully vaccinated, or 75.4% of the county’s population.

In Manatee County, about 240,558 people are fully vaccinated, or 59.7% of the county’s population.

COVID-19 hospitalizations in Florida

There were 11,839 people hospitalized for COVID-19 in Florida, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Wednesday report. This data is reported from 231 Florida hospitals. The number of people hospitalized across the state is 946 more than the day prior, when 224 hospitals reported.

COVID-19 patients take up 21.29% of all inpatient beds in the latest report, compared to 20.81% among Tuesday’s reporting hospitals.

Omicron, so far, is not as deadly as delta’s surge last summer. Hospitalizations have not approached records set during delta’s wave from July through September.

At delta’s August peak, more than 15,000 patients were hospitalized in Florida, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.

Of the people hospitalized in Florida, 1,615 were in intensive care units, an increase of 154 from Tuesday. That represents about 25.09% of the state’s ICU beds, compared to 24.28% the previous day.

Wednesday’s Miami-Dade County report said there were 1,550 COVID patients in the county’s hospitals on Tuesday, a decrease of 187 from the previous day. Of the 209 new COVID patients, 135 (64.59%) had not been vaccinated. Intensive care patients numbered 259, decreased by 25 from a day earlier.

Broward County’s Wednesday report said there were 1,216 COVID patients in the county’s hospitals, a decrease of 26 patients compared to the day before.

Miami Herald staff writer Carli Teproff contributed to this report.

This story was originally published January 19, 2022 at 1:57 PM with the headline "Florida COVID update: 900 more people in hospital, latest 7-day case average."

Michelle Marchante
Miami Herald
Michelle Marchante covers the pulse of healthcare in South Florida and also the City of Coral Gables. Before that, she covered the COVID-19 pandemic, hurricanes, crime, education, entertainment and other topics in South Florida for the Herald as a breaking news reporter. She recently won first place in the health reporting category in the 2025 Sunshine State Awards for her coverage of Steward Health’s bankruptcy. An investigative series about the abrupt closure of a Miami heart transplant program led Michelle and her colleagues to be recognized as finalists in two 2024 Florida Sunshine State Award categories. She also won second place in the 73rd annual Green Eyeshade Awards for her consumer-focused healthcare stories and was part of the team of reporters who won a 2022 Pulitzer Prize for the Miami Herald’s breaking news coverage of the Surfside building collapse. Michelle graduated with honors from Florida International University and was a 2025 National Press Foundation Covering Workplace Mental Health fellow and a 2020-2021 Poynter-Koch Media & Journalism fellow.  Support my work with a digital subscription
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