Coronavirus update – June 4th
Bottom Line: This daily update is designed to put everything in perspective with straight-forward facts. No hyperbole, no misinformation, no nonsense. Perhaps the biggest coronavirus related news Wednesday was about George Floyd. An autopsy performed into his wrongful death revealed he tested positive for COVID-19 in early April. It’s not clear if the virus contributed to the asphyxiation brought about by former officer Derek Chauvin. The surprise development put renewed focus on concerns regarding protests potentially leading to additional spread of the virus.
Around the world the news wasn’t the best Wednesday. Largely due to continued issues in Brazil and Russia, it was the third highest day for new diagnosed cases since the pandemic began. The news was a bit better stateside as the US still accounted for over 20,000 new cases, however the figure was near the bottom of the two-week trend – while the total of active cases continued to drop across the country as well.
While April 24th proved to be the peak day for new diagnosed cases, May 30th was actually the peak day for total active cases in the United States. We’ve seen a steady decline in active cases since last Friday’s peak. With over 109,000 deaths attributed to COVID-19, it is the deadliest virus in the United States since the 1918 pandemic which killed an estimated 500,000 people.
Here’s where we stand as of now...
Worldwide:
- 6,585,506 – 388,244 deaths – 3,181,128 recovered
Nationally:
- 1,902,031 cases – 109,146 deaths – 688,670 recovered
Florida:
- 58,764 cases – 2,567 deaths
In Florida the news wasn’t good to say the least. With 1,317 new diagnosed cases on Wednesday, we saw a greater than doubling of new cases over Tuesday and it was the second highest day for new cases in our state to date. The peak day for new cases was April 17th. It’s certainly not the news we wanted as Phase Two reopening was announced for most of the state on Friday as well.
Florida continues to outperform the country as a whole, though Wednesday’s spike in new cases led to Florida passing Michigan for 8th in total cases nationally while we remain 11th in deaths. 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.
One bit of good news, the overall positive test rate in Florida dropped to a new low of 5.4% Wednesday-less than half of the peak rate 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 54.