Coronavirus update – June 9th
Bottom Line: This daily update is designed to put everything in perspective with straight-forward facts. No hyperbole, no misinformation, no nonsense.After a rough weekend with increases in new cases across the county, around the world and here in South Florida, Monday brought some better news. In the US we had the second fewest new cases we’ve had since May 11th, while seeing a dip below a thousand new diagnosed cases in Florida for the first time in a week. After averaging around 700 new diagnosed cases daily in Florida in recent weeks, we’ve had a spike in cases since last Wednesday. We’ve averaged more than 1,200 new cases per day over the past six days. The state has increased its testing capacity by 27% over two weeks ago and cited this as the catalyst for the increases, however the increase in new diagnosed cases has been 71% over that same time. This suggests testing alone doesn’t account for the increase. The past six days have also been the six highest days for new cases since the pandemic began in Florida. We’ve seen growth in specific hotspots in Broward, Collier, Hendry, Martin, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach Counties. It’s interesting that there’s not a hot spot anywhere north of Martin County in the state. This seems to dispel the hope that heat and humidity alone might do the trick to eliminate the threat of the virus.
With over 113,000 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:
- 7,210,181 – 408,965 deaths – 3,550,486 recovered
Nationally:
- 2,026,597 cases – 113,061 deaths – 773,505 recovered
Florida:
- 64,904 cases – 2,715 deaths
Despite the most recent news Florida continues to outperform the country, Florida is 8th in total cases nationally while we remain 11th in deaths. Florida is the third most populous state. 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. We have hot spots in all three counties right now.
The overall positive test rate in Florida remained at its lowest level 5.3%, 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.