Largely due to the continued spikes in new cases in Brazil and Russia, Thursday was the worst day yet for newly diagnosed cases worldwide. There are now 5,920,086 cases, 362,360 deaths, and 2,592,001 recoveries around the world. And over 116,000 new cases diagnosed. It’s a reminder that while we continue to make progress in the United States, the threat is still worsening outside of our country. It also illustrates some of the challenges we currently face and could for some time in the future with international travel.
Total cases in the United States were slightly higher than the prior few days but still below the two-week trendline. We now have 1,768,461 cases, 103,330 deaths, and 498,725 recoveries. With over 103,000 deaths attributed to COVID-19, it is the deadliest virus in the United States since the 1918 pandemic which killed an estimated 500,000 people.
In Florida, the positive trend continued yesterday. There are now 53,285 cases and 2,364 deaths. Thursdays, however, consistently produce the highest case count of any day of the week. While the 651 new diagnosed cases were higher than the prior two days, it’s half the total from the prior Thursday. Florida continues to outperform the country as a whole. We test more aggressively than most states, with only New York testing more than Florida. More than half of all of Florida’s cases remain 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 remained 5.6%, that's the lowest rate since testing began. That's down from a peak of 11%. 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 and wearing masks in public.
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