FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — With start of a new school year underway in several districts, Florida reported 20,331 new coronavirus cases in children younger than 12, and 17,310 new cases in children 12 to 19. Teenagers now represent the highest positivity rate of any age group in the state.
On Friday, the state health department reported 160,118 new cases for the week ending Aug. 19, compared with 151,41 a week ago. Nationwide, Florida is the state in the country with the most new COVID-19 cases for the last seven days, exceeding large states such as California and Texas, according to U.S. health data.
Florida also reported a large increase in new deaths on Friday — 1,486 in the last seven days.
The surge of new cases has been felt in the state hospitals where COVID admissions continue to rise.
On Friday, more COVID patients than ever before occupied beds in Florida hospitals. Within 258 hospitals in the state reporting, there were 17,198 COVID patients. Last Friday, there were 15,840 patients hospitalized with COVID.
Broward County continues to rank first in the county for new COVID hospital admissions with 2,177 patients, slightly more than Harris County, Texas, whose hospitals admitted 2,075 new patients in the last seven days.
Broward built its own hospital dashboard to provide a better view of how COVID is affecting capacity. On Friday the dashboard indicated that not only were new admissions increasing, but overall patient counts are up. The total COVID patient count at Broward’s 16 hospitals was 1,762, compared with 1,645 a week ago.
The county’s new dashboard shows that about 98% of patient beds are filled, and 94% of adult ICU beds. The dashboard shows all but two of the 71 pediatric ICU beds are filled.
Palm Beach County officials voted this week to build a hospital dashboard, too. Under the County Commission’s order, private hospitals will have to send daily reports to the county about the numbers of COVID patients, available beds, and room in intensive care units. Officials say this information will help officials improve treatment options.
The 20,331 new cases this week for children 12 or younger compares with 16,754 new cases a week ago.
The number of new vaccine doses administered in the last week rose slightly to 443,953 from 437,459 a week earlier. However, just a month earlier, Florida gave out only 257,404 shots for the week.
With 1,486 new fatalities on record, a total of 42,252 Florida residents are now dead from COVID-19. This week’s deaths reflect an increase from the 1,071 last week, although deaths can take several days or weeks to be reported to the state.
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