This daily update is designed to put everything into perspective with straight-forward facts. Tuesday was a mixed bag of news on the coronavirus front. We crossed 400,000 cases. Had the biggest day for new cases and deaths yet, though some of the potentially encouraging signs looked like they may, in fact, be trends. New York had fewer hospitalizations for a third straight day. This as New York state now has more diagnosed cases than any other country in the world. Speaking of the rest of the world, we learned the improved models showing earlier peaks for the virus across the country, including in Florida, is due to improved trends in Italy and Spain. Incidentally, Spain passed Italy in total cases as Italy appears to be on the downside of the outbreak. Given that Surgeon General, Dr. Jerome Adams had prepared us for potentially the worst week of our lives, the start of it could have been worse.
In Florida, we have 14,747 cases and 296 deaths, specific Florida recoveries aren’t disclosed. In the United States, there are 400,546 cases, 12,857 deaths, 21,711 recoveries. Around the world, we have 1,434,235 cases, 82,143 deaths, and 302,453 recoveries.
We experienced more than 84k additional cases worldwide Tuesday, with 33k new cases in the US and over 1,914 deaths, both new daily highs in the United States. The most disconcerting aspect of the virus remains the death/recovery rate based on closed cases. The death rate remained at 21% for a third consecutive day. This after having reached a low of 6% about a month ago. We’ve seen the death rate rise as the reach of the virus grows. The common pattern with the virus spreading is an increase in death rates with vulnerable early on, followed by improving rates over time as people begin to recover.
On Tuesday in Florida, we had 1,118 new cases and 42 deaths. While the deaths were a new high within a day in Florida, the new case count was actually lower over Monday’s total. Additionally, Governor DeSantis said the state has secured over a million doses of the recently FDA approved hydroxychloroquine, most commonly used to treat malaria, for COVID-19 patients in Florida. Broward Health was the first hospital online with the treatment, though it should be widely available across the state for treatment by the end of the week.
Florida fell to 8th in the country in total cases and remained 10th in deaths despite being the third most populous state. 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. This is all encouraging news. Additionally, The University of Washington coronavirus model, which has been the most widely used by public officials, now projects the virus peaking in Florida on April 21st, that’s nearly two weeks earlier than last week’s model prediction. There’s evidence that the precautions we’ve been taking are having a positive effect on the curve of the virus.
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: 2,230
- Miami-Dade: 5,126
- Palm Beach: 1,159
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. The highest concentration of cases is coming from those between the ages of 45-54.
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