Florida’s reopening two weeks later – What we’ve learned
Bottom Line: One Week nets you a Barenaked Ladies song that stylistically is most similar to Hook by Blues Traveler but not much that’s conclusive about reopening during the coronavirus. Two weeks...now we’re in business – literally and figuratively. While Broward and Miami-Dade join the rest of the state in reopening today, it’s been two weeks since 64 of Florida’s 67 counties reopened representing 72% of the state’s population. That’s significant because 14 days is the long end of COVID-19's incubation period. It's enough time to see if we had an uptick in cases related to reopening. Here’s what the data says...
On May 4th, the day reopening began in Florida, there were 819 new diagnosed cases of COVID-19 statewide with a seven-day average of 680 new cases per day. Most recently, we had 673 new diagnosed cases with a seven-day average of 687 new cases. Put it altogether and here’s where Florida is two weeks into reopening...
- Most recent daily cases down 16%
- Trailing weekly average for new cases up 1%
It’s been a mixed bag. We’ve had a decline in new case counts recently over two weeks ago (and keep in mind Palm Beach County has now been reopened for a week), we were able to reopen most of the state’s economy with only a 1% uptick in new cases – which comes against the backdrop of more testing taking place statewide than two weeks ago. Florida’s reopening has generally been a success two weeks later but it hasn’t been perfect. Four of the five original states to reopen, including Georgia, experienced across the board declines in cases two weeks in. We’ve not fared as well as those states but we’ve also not gone backwards. Soon we’ll have a clearer picture of what reopening looks like in Florida with Broward and Dade’s reopening today along with most of the state entering full phase one reopening. We’ll take another look in one week...the hook brings you back.