FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Florida’s death toll from COVID-19 has increased by more than 900.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday, Florida is now reporting 43,632 fatalities connected to COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. That’s 901 more than the 42,731 cumulative deaths reported a day earlier.
Those deaths didn’t all occur in the past 24 hours and span back over weeks.
The state is up to 3,151,909 total COVID-19 cases since the start of the outbreak, according to the latest CDC data. It reflects an increase of 21,765 from the total reported Wednesday.
More than 26,000 new cases were reported Wednesday, a one-day record.
These metrics are sent to the CDC by Florida’s health department. The state only releases a comprehensive COVID-19 report publicly once a week on Fridays.
This past Friday’s report showed that the new-case positivity rate statewide had reached 19.8%, a ninth consecutive week of increases in that metric.
Florida leads the nation with 16,833 people hospitalized with COVID-19 on Thursday, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Overall, more than 85% of Florida’s hospital beds are being used and over 95% of the state’s ICU beds are full.
Local numbers
Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said in a tweet Thursday that close to 1,800 people in the county are hospitalized with COVID-19.
Just over 1,600 patients are hospitalized in Broward County. Broward Mayor Steve Geller said 70% of those hospitalized are under the age of 65.
Latest COVID-19 dashboard: https://t.co/pur2JqWWFi
— Daniella Levine Cava (@MayorDaniella) August 26, 2021
➔ 7-day positivity: 15.13%
➔ 1,776 patients hospitalized
➔ 341 of these patients are on ventilators
➔ 90% of those admitted yesterday were unvaccinated
Find a vaccination or testing site near you: https://t.co/dzvw6NxJma
Leaders at Broward Health and the Memorial Health System say they are cautiously optimistic that they have hit and passed the peak of hospitalizations, but they stress the need for the unvaccinated to go get their shots.
“97 percent of the people we have in the hospital today are unvaccinated,” Broward Health Chief Medical Officer Dr. Joshua Lenchaus said. “That’s the same number we had last week. It’s the same number we have three weeks ago.”
Memorial said last week they had 713 COVID-19 patients but on Thursday were down to 636.
Their ICU is still in an overflow mode. They have 132 official intensive care beds but have had to expand to 153. On Thursday their ICU was filled with 110 COVID patients.
To find out where you can get a COVID-19 vaccine in South Florida, click here.