Coronavirus update - March 27th
Bottom Line: This daily update is designed to put everything in perspective with straight-forward facts. No hyperbole, no misinformation, no “bad math”. Thursday was the day the United States became the epicenter for cases worldwide with New York now representing ground zero. Cases in the northeast especially, have skyrocketed. New York and New Jersey lead the country in cases with well over half of the total cases coming from those two states.
China had a third straight day of fewer than 100 new cases. Questions remain about the validity of these numbers but if even somewhat true – it's encouraging and could provide a timeline for turning the corner in this country. One of the other bright spots on the horizon is the recent FDA approval of a new test that can produce results in as few as 45 minutes. The new tests are set begin shipping today.
As a reminder, according to the Task Force, those over the age of 60 are disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 along with those who have pre-existing conditions.
Here’s where we now stand in Florida:
- 2,484 instate cases – 26 deaths
Nationally:
- 85,612 cases – 1,301 deaths –1868 recovered
Worldwide:
- 536,615 – 24,114 deaths – 124,402 recovered
We experienced more than 63,000 additional cases worldwide on Thursday, the most of any day, with more than 17,000 new cases in the US and 269 additional deaths. The United States now leads the world in total cases.In more promising news, well over a thousand Americans were proven to have beaten the virus yesterday leading to more total recoveries than deaths in our country for the first time since the virus spread to all states.
The most disconcerting aspect of the virus remains the death/recovery rate based on closed cases. The death rate remained at 16% worldwide for a second straight day on Thursday. This after having reached a low of 6% three weeks ago. 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 early on, followed by improving rates overtime as people begin to recover. Those are just the facts. Hopefully we begin to see progress with the death rate along with spring. The traditional flu season generally ends in April.