Coronavirus update – May 15th
Bottom Line: This daily update is designed to put everything in perspective with straight-forward facts. No hyperbole, no misinformation, no nonsense. Yesterday, new diagnosed case counts were the highest since last Friday across the country – though inline with the two-week trend line. Thursday’s totals were 30% lower than the peak day for cases in which occurred April 24th. This despite most of the country being in some state of reopening. There continues to be evidence that states are able to begin to reopen while simultaneously reducing the spread of the virus while increasing testing. Outside of the US, Russia and Brazil remain hot spots for the growth and spread of the virus.
Here’s where we stand as of now...
Worldwide:
- 4,539,401 – 303,555 deaths – 1,711,250 recovered
Nationally:
- 1,457,593 cases –86,912 deaths –318,027 recovered
Florida:
- 43,210 cases – 1,876 deaths
In Florida we had 808 new diagnosed cases and 47 related deaths over the past day. The new case count was higher than Wednesday’s, though lower than the prior Thursday.It’s now been eleven full days since the original 64 counties began to reopen. With an average incubation period of five days for the coronavirus, we’re in an important window of monitoring to see the impact of the reopening efforts across the state. This is being closely watched as Broward and Miami-Dade are set to join the rest of the state in reopening Monday and Governor DeSantis appears ready to announce phase two reopening's which could include bars and gyms.
Florida also remains 9th in the country in total cases and 10th in deaths. We’re the third most populous state. Florida’s performing far better than most states on a relative basis. We’ve also tested more aggressively than most states, with only New York having tested more than Florida. More than half of all of Florida’s cases remain in the tri-county area with Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach having the most cases in the state in that order.
The overall positive test rate in Florida remained at 7.1%,the lowest rate since testing began. That's down from the peak of 11%. As a reminder, the newest diagnosed cases are new cases obtained through community spread. This reinforces the importance of adhering to the warnings of public officials including social distancing and wearing masks in public. The average age of someone diagnosed with COVID-19 in Florida is 52.