Coronavirus in Florida – March 19th update
Bottom Line: Wednesday brought about 112 new diagnosed cases in Florida and the 8th death attributed to the virus. We also learned that South Florida Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart became the first member of Congress to test positive for the virus. He’s been isolating in Washington D.C. since last Friday. Additionally, Palm Beach County State Representative Mike Caruso is also isolating after concerns he might have been exposed. Speaking of Palm Beach County, the youngest diagnosis yet, a six-year-old occurred in PBC.
In Governor DeSantis’s daily update, he indicated Florida had secured COVID-19 test kits capable of producing 600,000 individual test results, however the state is running low on swabs which are needed to collect samples to be tested. The governor stated an order for swabs the state placed on March 9th still hasn’t been delivered and may limit the ability to continue to ramp up testing state-wide. The range in age for positive tests in our state now ranges from 6 to 89. 54% of all of Florida’s cases currently are in the tri-county area. Here’s the outlook in South Florida right now...
- Broward: 80
- Miami-Dade: 77
- Palm Beach: 21
In the early going of testing we’re seeing a really high rate of positive tests in Florida. To date, 25% of all test results for COVID-19 have come back positive. That’s risen 4% over the past day. It remains much higher than the guidance provided by the Coronavirus Task Force. Nationally and internationally which have ranged from 1%-4%. There are 1,140 outstanding tests awaiting results, the most yet...so expect these numbers to increase considerably over the next day.