Coronavirus update - March 23rd
Bottom Line: This daily update is designed to put everything in perspective with straight-forward facts. No hyperbole, no misinformation, no “bad math”. This weekend brought a proliferation of new documented cases and the FDA approval of a new test that can produce results in as few as 45 minutes. The new test will be shipping nationwide on Friday – for full use across the country a week from today. President Trump also deployed the National Guard to California, New York and Washington state to deal with the outbreaks in those states.
As a reminder, according to the Task Force, those over the age of 60 are disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. Officials stated that the symptoms are least severe with those who are youngest. The task force also indicated the average age of death for someone due to the virus is 80.
Here’s where we now stand in Florida:
- 1,007 instate cases –13 deaths – 1 recovered
Nationally:
- 35,060 cases – 457 deaths – 178 recovered
Worldwide:
- 341,329 – 14,746 deaths – 99,040 recovered
We experienced 95,000 additional cases worldwide over the weekend with more than 20,000 new cases in the US. The United States is now 3rd in the world in total cases, only behind China and Italy. The most disconcerting aspect of the virus at this point remains the death/recovery rate based on closed cases. We have well more than double the deaths to recoveries in the US thus far and worldwide the death rate has spiked to 13%. This after having reached a low of 6% just over two weeks 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 overtime as people begin to recover. In the early stages of the breakout in the US we’re continuing to see more people die for the virus than fully recover. I’m not at all trying to be an alarmist. Those are just the facts. Hopefully we begin to see progress with the death rate along with spring. The traditional flu season generally ends in early April.