Coronavirus in Florida – April 8th Update
Bottom Line: We’ve had 1,118 new cases and 42 deaths in Florida on Tuesday. While the deaths were a new high within a day in Florida, the new case count was actually lower over Monday’s total. Additionally, Governor DeSantis said the state has secured over a million doses of the recently FDA approved hydroxychloroquine, most commonly used to treat malaria, for COVID-19 patients in Florida. Broward Health was the first hospital online with the treatment – though it should be widely available across the state for treatment by the end of the week.
Florida fell to 8th in the country in total cases and remained 10th in deaths despite being the third most populous state. We’re performing far better than most states on a relative basis. We’re also testing more aggressively than most states, adjusted for population, making the performance of our state even more impressive. This is all encouraging news. Additionally, The University of Washington coronavirus model, which has been the most widely used by public officials, now projects the virus peaking in Florida on April 21st, that’s nearly two weeks earlier than last week’s model predication. We learned that new data, more encouraging data out of Italy and Spain were the prominent reasons for the adjustment to Florida’s projected timeline. There’s also evidence that the precautions we’ve been taking are having a positive effect on the curve of the virus.
The range in age for positive tests in our state ranges from infants to 103. 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.
Here’s where we now stand in Florida:
- 14,747 cases – 296 deaths
Here’s the count in South Florida right now...
- Broward: 2,230
- Miami-Dade: 5,126
- Palm Beach: 1,159
We continue to see a high rate of positive test results in Florida. To date nearly 11% of all tests for COVID-19 have come back positive. The further into testing we go the more likely the newest diagnosed cases are new cases. 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.