This daily update is designed to put everything into perspective with straight-forward facts. This weekend brought tens of thousands of new cases in the United States as we remain the epicenter for cases worldwide with New York now representing ground zero. Only four other countries have more cases than New York state and the NYPD has now lost three employees to the virus. President Trump extended public distancing and related emergency public health measures through April 30th as he announced a goal of keeping deaths under 100,000.
China has reported five straight days of fewer than 100 new cases. Questions remain about the validity of these numbers but if even somewhat true, it's encouraging and could provide a timeline for turning the corner in this country. One of the other bright spots on the horizon is the recent FDA approval of a new test that can produce results in as few as 45 minutes. They began shipping on Friday and will be available across the country this week, including South Florida.
As of this entry, there are 4,950 cases and 60 deaths in Florida. There are 142,735 cases, 2,489 deaths, and 4,562 recovered in the US and 723,732 cases, 34,000 deaths, and 151,833 recovered worldwide.
We experienced more than 187k additional cases worldwide over the weekend with more than 57,000 new cases in the US and 1,188 additional deaths. The United States continues to lead the world in total cases by a wide margin over Italy and China. In more promising news, well over two thousand Americans were proven to have beaten the virus this weekend as we have more total recoveries than deaths in our country.
In Florida, cases nearly doubled over the weekend, as we had just under 2,500 new cases. As of this entry there are 4,950 total in-state cases. Deaths more than doubled totaling 60 statewide. Still, Florida ranks just 6th nationally in total cases, despite having the 3rd largest population that indicates that we’re faring better than most states on a relative basis.
Florida’s Surgeon General, Scott Rivkees issued a public health advisory to Florida’s seniors, 65 and older, to stay-at-home. Governor DeSantis announced checkpoints will be opened on I-10 and I-95 to screen vehicles traveling into Florida from Connecticut, Louisiana, New York and New Jersey. The range in age for positive tests in our state ranges from 2 to 96. 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: 1,012
- Miami-Dade: 1,472
- Palm Beach: 383
We continue to see a high rate of positive test results in Florida. To date, nearly 10% of all tests for COVID-19 have come back positive. That’s up from last week and perhaps indicates that the community spread has been occurring. Florida’s positive test rate remains much higher than the guidance provided by the Coronavirus Task Force of 1%-4% worldwide.
The further we get into testing and this process, it’s unlikely we’re just documenting people who already had it and are just being documented. The highest concentration of cases is coming from those between the ages of 45-54. Followed by those who are 55-64.
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