If you’re looking for positive news, there’s not a lot of it coming out of the weekend. More than 8 million diagnosed cases worldwide. Problems continuing to escalate in about a dozen countries led by Brazil. There are now 8,007,712 cases, 435,848 deaths and 4,134,702 recoveries around the world. In the US, we now have 2,162,228 cases, 117,858 deaths, and 870,050 recoveries. But there was one place we could point to for improved news coming out of the weekend. In the United States, we had the fewest deaths attributed to COVID-19 since March 25th. This suggests we might be onto better treatment options along with earlier detection due to increased testing. It’s also possible current strains aren’t as deadly, though that’s yet to be proven.
The news in Florida, especially South Florida, was brutal over the weekend. There are now 75,568 cases and 2,934 deaths. We had our three highest days for diagnosed cases yet and new hotspots opened across the state. Numerous bars and nightclubs which reopened as part of phase two reopening are temporarily closing after cases attributed to those establishments and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez is considering re-imposing restrictions in the city.
Less than 40% of the increase in new cases can potentially be explained by additional testing and the fastest growth is now coming from younger adults. There’s no question significant spread has been occurring in Florida, especially South Florida and it’s likely reopening along with protests have fueled the growth of the spread.
Over half of Florida’s cases remain in the tri-county with Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach County having the most cases in that order, though Palm Beach County continues to see the biggest increase in new cases and is now fewer than 100 cases behind Broward since the pandemic began.
The overall positive test rate in Florida rose over the weekend to 5.4%. The peak was 11% around five weeks ago, however, the low was 5.2% a week ago. This reinforces the importance of adhering to the warnings of public officials including social distancing and wearing masks in public.
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