After four straight days of less than 10,000 cases reported daily, Florida added more than 11,400 new COVID-19 cases Thursday, as the state's virus-related death toll increased by over 200.
The 11,423 new confirmed COVID-19 cases brought Florida's total to 1,687,594 since the outbreak began, according to figures released by the state's department of health. The increase in cases is partially due to a large increases in test results, with results of 174,000 tests released Thursday compared to 96,000 on Wednesday.
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Another 202 virus-related deaths among Florida residents were reported Thursday, bringing the total to 26,035. An additional 421 non-resident deaths have been confirmed in the state to-date, five more than were reported on Wednesday. Most of the newly confirmed deaths occurred days or weeks earlier.
Despite the increase in cases and deaths, the positivity rate for new cases in the state was 7.70% in Thursday's department of health coronavirus report, a large decease from Wednesday's 10.18% rate.
The positivity rate for all cases, including people who have already been tested, was 9.58%, well below Wednesday's rate of 12.81%.
In South Florida, Miami-Dade County reached 366,127 cases Thursday, an increase of 2,004 since Wednesday, along with 4,797 COVID-related deaths, a single-day increase of 29.
In Broward County, there were 169,691 total COVID-19 cases reported, a daily increase of 1,038, along with 2,069 virus-related deaths, seven more than Wednesday's total.
Palm Beach County had 104,693 cases and 2,152 virus-related deaths Thursday, while Monroe County had 5,262 cases and 40 deaths.
Florida's daily vaccine report showed about 1,320,000 people have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccination since the state started administering the vaccine in mid-December. Just over 247,000 have received the second booster shot.
