Florida COVID-19 Cases and Rising Positivity Rates

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida – Florida’s COVID-19 cases have increased this week at a rate not seen in more than two months, according to the latest state data.

From July 2 to 8, 23,697 new cases were verified in Florida, the largest weekly increase since 29,263 new cases were reported the week that began April 30.

The new case positivity rate also reached 7.8%, by far the highest in this 10-week period. Last week it was 5.2% and the previous week 3.8%.

Vaccinations have declined steadily over the past 10 weeks, with 207,089 doses given this week, according to Florida Department of Health measurements released Friday.

Forbes reported Thursday that Florida is among the states with the highest per capita COVID-19 cases and one of the states with increasing hospitalizations.

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President Joe Biden said this week that more COVID vaccinations are needed as the Delta variant spreads.

“We have to go community by community, neighborhood by neighborhood, and often door to door, literally knocking on doors,” Biden said.

The Delta variant is expected to take over as the dominant strain in Florida soon, the researchers said, noting that it is already the most common strain of the virus in the United States, accounting for nearly 52% of cases.

In South Florida, Broward Health, Memorial Regional and Jackson Memorial all told Local 10 News they were seeing higher numbers of COVID-19 hospitalizations this week. They say they don’t test the variants and therefore don’t know how many of their cases are of the Delta variant, but they attribute it to a post-holiday influx.

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Of Florida’s eligible population (ages 12 and older), 58% have been vaccinated.

Miami-Dade (73%), Broward (66%), Monroe (68%) and Palm Beach (62%) counties all have higher vaccination rates than the state average.

Florida last month ended its daily COVID-19 reporting and now releases weekly data on Friday.

SEE THIS WEEK’S FULL REPORT BELOW: