Coronavirus update – April 1st
Bottom Line: This daily update is designed to put everything in perspective with straight-forward facts. No hyperbole, no misinformation, no “bad math”. Tuesday marked the end of March, the 1st quarter and the day that the US crossed 4,000 COVID-19 related deaths. The bigger news, of course, came when President Trump prepared Americans for a very difficult two weeks in which deaths are expected to exceed 100,000 and could soar to as high as 240,000. For any remaining holdouts wondering about the severity of this virus and the reaction by public officials to it... This eye-opening information from the administration should put an end to it once and for all.
China, where this all began,has reported seven straight days 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 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:
- 6,741 instate cases – 85 deaths
Nationally:
- 188,592 cases – 4,055 deaths – 7,251 recovered
Worldwide:
- 860,184 – 42,345 deaths – 178,468 recovered
We experienced more than 74k additional cases worldwide on Tuesday with more than 24,000 new cases in the US and 885 additional deaths. The United States continues to lead the world in total cases by a wide margin over Italy and Spain. In more promising news, more than 1,300 Americans were proven to have beaten the virus Tuesday 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 remained at 19% worldwide for the second consecutive day. 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. Hopefully we begin to see progress with the death rate along with spring. The traditional flu season generally ends in April.