This daily update is designed to put everything into perspective with straight-forward facts. Tuesday marked the end of March, the 1st quarter and the day that the US crossed 4,000 COVID-19 related deaths. The bigger news, of course, came when President Trump prepared Americans for a very difficult two weeks in which deaths are expected to exceed 100,000 and could soar to as high as 240,000. For any remaining holdouts wondering about the severity of this virus and the reaction by public officials to it. This eye-opening information from the administration should put an end to it.
China, where this all began, has reported seven 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 yet another new test by Abbot Labs that can produce results in as few as 5 minutes. This is separate from the new tests which were approved just over a week ago that can produce results in 45 minutes. The testing methods are rapidly improving.
As of this entry, Florida has 6,741 cases and 85 deaths. The US has 188,592 cases, 4,055 deaths, and 7,251 recovered. Around the world, there are 860,184 cases, 42,345 deaths, and 178,468 recovered.
We experienced more than 74k additional cases worldwide on Tuesday with more than 24,000 new cases in the US and 885 additional deaths. The United States continues to lead the world in total cases by a wide margin over Italy and Spain. In more promising news, more than 1,300 Americans were proven to have beaten the virus Tuesday as we have more total recoveries than deaths in our country.
In Florida, we had 1,037 new cases and 14 deaths over the past 24 hours. Those are both new highs for a single day in Florida. That’s the bad news. The better news is that despite the increases, Florida remains 5th in the country in total cases despite being the third most populous state. We’re performing better than most states on a relative basis.
Tuesday saw a new test site come online in West Palm Beach at FITTEAM Ballpark of the Palm Beaches and Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran issue a directive that K-12 schools should remain virtual, and students off-campus, until at least May 1st. Also, Florida’s Department of Economic Opportunity said they received a minimum of 329,000 unemployment claims during the month.
The range in age for positive tests in our state ranges from an infant to 101. 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: 1,219
- Miami-Dade: 2,086
- Palm Beach: 551
We continue to see a high rate of positive test results in Florida. To date over 10% of all tests for COVID-19 have come back positive. That’s up again over the past day and it's perhaps indicating that community spread is occurring. The further into testing we go in Florida, the more likely the newest diagnosed cases are new cases, especially with the positive test rate heading higher. 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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