Coronavirus update - March 16th
Bottom Line: This daily update is designed to put everything in perspective with straight-forward facts. No hyperbole, no misinformation, no “bad math”. Here’s where we stand...
We had a doubling of COVID - 19 diagnosed cases in Florida over the weekend. This included people ranging in age from 19 to 83. We're increasingly seeing younger people being diagnosed in our state. Twenty-one of the cases involve those under the age of 30.
As a reminder, according to the Task Force, those over the age of 60 are disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. Officials stated that the symptoms are least severe with those who are youngest – with the effects being less severe than the common flu for children. This is different than most viruses which are most dangerous for those oldest and youngest. The task force also indicated the average age of death for someone due to the virus is 80.
Here’s where we now stand in Florida:
- 149 instate cases – 4 deaths – 0 recovered
Nationally:
- 3,782 cases – 69 deaths –73 recovered
Worldwide:
- 169,943 – 6,523 deaths – 77,778 recovered
The United States remains 8th in the world in total cases. The most disconcerting aspect of the virus at this point remains the death/recovery rate based on closed cases. It has risen to 8%. That’s up from a recent low of 6%. We’ve seen the death rate rise as the reach of the virus grows. The common pattern with the virus spreading is an increase in death rates with vulnerable people early on followed by improving rates overtime as people begin to recover.
In the United States we’ve finally started to experience more recoveries than deaths. Let’s hope that’s a trend that rapidly grows. As for the death rate,to put this in perspective, let’s say every American obtained the H1N1 flu virus. Based on its average death rate it’d kill 165,000 Americans. If the COVID-19 virus maintained its current death rate and every American contracted it, 26.4 million Americans would die. Again, I’m not at all trying to be an alarmist. Those are just the facts. Hopefully we begin to see progress with the death rate and the end of winter which is just around the corner. The traditional flu season generally ends in early April.