Thirty-four states are in phase one reopening, including Florida, with the exception of South Florida. Though it’s too early to get a read on Florida’s 64 reopenedcounties, there's still no indication that the five counties which opened beaches on April 17th have any associated issues with having done so.
Right now, worldwide there are 3,833,547 cases, 265,210 deaths, and 1,306,345 recoveries. In the United States, we have 1,263,224 cases, 74,809 deaths, and 213,109 recoveries. In the state of Florida, we have 37,439 cases and 1,471 deaths.
Florida had 563 new cases and 68 deaths attributed to the coronavirus over the past day. The new case count was about even from the prior day, while overall deaths declined. In general, the trends remain positive in Florida and across the country. The peak day for cases in Florida was April 3rd with just over 1,300 diagnosed. The trend is especially encouraging with most of the country in some phase of reopening including five states which are now 13 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 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 Wednesday dropping to a new low. 7.9% 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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