While the news of potential peak/flattening of the curve as early as this week continues to bring more optimism to the conversation, Tuesday brought the reality that we aren’t there yet. We crossed the 2 million case mark worldwide and it was the highest day for new diagnosed cases and deaths since the pandemic began. Meanwhile, President Trump indicated the United States will halt funding to the World Health Organization after Taiwan produced evidence the WHO ignored their warnings and request for additional information about the coronavirus in December. Also, a Harvard Study suggested social distancing and related changes we’ve made in society since the outbreak began, may be needed from time to time for the next two years. Harvard’s research suggests COVID-19 will have a seasonal component to it, similar to flu season.
Right now, worldwide, there are 2,004,383 cases, 126,811 deaths, and 485,303 recoveries. In the US, there are 587,173 cases, 23,644 deaths, and 36,948 recoveries. While right here in our state, we have 21,019 cases and 499 deaths. We experienced more than 75,000 additional diagnosed cases and over 7,000 deaths worldwide Tuesday. In the United States, we had over 27,000 new cases and greater than 2,400 deaths, making Tuesday the deadliest day for the virus in the US.
On Tuesday, we had 609 new cases and 72 deaths in Florida attributed to the coronavirus. While it proved to be the deadliest day thus far in our state, the news regarding new cases was significantly better. Newly diagnosed cases were nearly half of the prior day’s total and the smallest number within 24 hours in Florida since March 24th. With the potential for ongoing improvement and the increased likelihood that April 3rd was the peak for new cases in Florida, Governor DeSantis announced a task force on reopening Florida's economy and schools will be created as early as this week. Also, Emergency Management Director Jared Moskowitz said the supply chain of needed supplies had significantly improved with only N95 masks still proving to be a challenge to procure.
Overall hospitalizations are now at their highest levels in Florida, with 3,050 COVID-19 patients currently being served. That’s an increase of greater than 200 from yesterday. Florida remained 8th in the country in total cases and moved up to 10th in deaths. We’re performing far better than most states on a relative basis. We’re also testing more aggressively than most states, adjusted for population, making the performance of our state even more impressive. More than half of all of Florida’s cases currently are in the tri-county area with Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach having the most cases in the state in that order.
- Broward: 3,261
- Miami-Dade: 7,712
- Palm Beach: 1,740
We continue to see a high rate of positive test results in Florida. To date, nearly 11% of all tests for COVID-19 have come back positive. The further into testing we go the more likely the newest diagnosed cases are new cases. This reinforces the importance of adhering to the warnings of public officials including social distancing and safer-at-home declarations.
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