Thirty-four states are in phase one reopening, including Florida. Though it’s too early to get a read on Florida’s 64 counties which have reopened, there's still no indication that the five counties which opened beaches on April 17th have any associated issues with having done so.
Worldwide, we have 3,740,583 cases, 258,481 deaths, and 1,247,191 recoveries. In the US, there are 1,237,761 cases, 72,275 deaths, and 200,669 recoveries. In Florida, we have 37,439 cases and 1,471 deaths.
Florida had 542 new cases and 72 deaths attributed to the coronavirus over the past day. The new case count was down significantly from the prior day, while overall deaths rose, though the rise includes 41 non-Floridians who died from the virus but were believed to have contracted it in Florida. In general, the trends remain positive in Florida and across the country. This is especially encouraging with most of the country in some phase of reopening including five states which are now twelve days into phase one reopening. The average incubation period for the virus according to the CDC and WHO is five days. The maximum incubation period is 14 days.
Florida remains 8th in the country in total cases and 10th in deaths. We’ve also tested more aggressively than most states, with only New York having tested more than Florida. 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.
The overall positive test rate in Florida continued to improve Tuesday dropping to a new low. 8% of all tests for COVID-19 have come back positive, that's down from the 11% peak just over two weeks ago. As a reminder, the newest diagnosed cases are new cases obtained through community spread. This reinforces the importance of adhering to the warnings of public officials including social distancing, safer-at-home declarations, and wearing masks in public.
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