Coronavirus update - March 30th
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 tens of thousands of new cases in the United States as we remain the epicenter for cases worldwide with New York now representing ground zero. Only four other countries have more cases than New York state currently and the NYPD has now lost three employees to the virus. President Trump extended public distancing and related emergency public health measures through April 30th as he announced a goal of keeping deaths under 100,000.
China has reported five 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 a new test that can produce results in as few as 45 minutes. They began shipping on Friday and will be available across the country this week, including being available in South Florida. As a reminder, according to the Task Force, those over the age of 65 are disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 along with those who have pre-existing conditions.
Here’s where we now stand in Florida:
- 4,950 instate cases – 60 deaths
Nationally:
- 142,735 cases – 2,489 deaths – 4,562 recovered
Worldwide:
- 723,732 – 34,000 deaths – 151,833 recovered
We experienced more than 187k additional cases worldwide over the weekend with more than 57,000 new cases in the US and 1,188 additional deaths. The United States continues to lead the world in total cases by a wide margin over Italy and China. In more promising news, well over two thousand Americans were proven to have beaten the virus this weekend as we have more total recoveries than deaths in our country.
The most disconcerting aspect of the virus remains the death/recovery rate based on closed cases. The death rate remained at 18% worldwide for a second straight day. This after having reached a low of 6% four 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. 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 April.