Coronavirus update - March 31st
Bottom Line: This daily update is designed to put everything in perspective with straight-forward facts. No hyperbole, no misinformation, no “bad math”. Monday was the day the COVID-19 crisis crossed 3,000 deaths, making the crisis more deadly than the terror attacks on 9/11/01.
China has reported six straight days of fewer than 100 new cases, as Spain has now passed China in diagnosed case counts. 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 yet another new test by Abbot Labs that can produce results in as few as 5 minutes. This is separate from the new tests which were approved just over a week ago that can produce results in 45 minutes. The testing methods are rapidly improving.
Here’s where we now stand in Florida:
- 5,704 instate cases – 71 deaths
Nationally:
- 164,266 cases –3,170 deaths –5,507 recovered
Worldwide:
- 786,940 – 37,843 deaths – 165,932 recovered
We experienced more than 63k additional cases worldwide on Monday with more than 22,000 new cases in the US and 681 additional deaths. The United States continues to lead the world in total cases by a wide margin over Italy and Spain. In slightly more promising news, nearly a thousand Americans were proven to have beaten the virus Monday as we have more total recoveries than deaths in our country.
The most disconcerting aspect of the virus remains the death/recovery rate based on closed cases. The death rate has now risen to 19% worldwide. This after having reached a low of 6% four 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.