Coronavirus in Florida – April 14th Update
Bottom Line:We had 1,124 new cases and 38 deaths in Florida attributed to the coronavirus on Monday. This remains below the peak of greater than 1,300 new cases on April 3rd - which may prove to be the high-watermark for diagnosed cases in Florida in a single day. With concerns currently highest with nursing homes and long-term care facilities in our state, Governor DeSantis has directed the National Guard to deploy to nursing homes and elderly care facilities for preemptive inspections and random testing. Ten teams of four guardsmen are being deployed statewide for the spot checks starting in south Florida.
Overall hospitalizations are now at their highest levels in Florida, with 2,841 COVID-19 patients currently being served. That’s an increase of 200 from yesterday. A new database provided by the Agency for Health Care Administration shows Florida with 59,000 hospital beds and 57% usage of those beds currently.
Florida increased to 8th in the country in total cases and remained 11th 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. The range in age for positive tests in our state ranges from infants to 104. 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:
- 21,019 cases – 499 deaths
Here’s the count in South Florida right now...
- Broward: 3,177
- Miami-Dade: 7,459
- Palm Beach: 1,704
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.