Coronavirus update – April 8th
Bottom Line: This daily update is designed to put everything in perspective with straight-forward facts. No hyperbole, no misinformation, no “bad math”. Tuesday was a mixed bag of news on the coronavirus front. We crossed 400,000 cases. Had the biggest day for new cases and deaths yet, though some of the potentially encouraging signs looked like they may in fact be trends. New York had fewer hospitalizations for a third straight day. This as New York state now has more diagnosed cases than any other country in the world. Speaking of the rest of the world, we learned the improved models showing earlier peaks for the virus across the country, including in Florida, is due to improved trends in Italy and Spain. Incidentally, Spain passed Italy in total cases as Italy appears to be on the downside of the outbreak in their country. Given that Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams had prepared us for potentially the worst week of our lives – the start of it could have been worse.
Here’s where we now stand in Florida:
- 14,747 cases – 296 deaths (specific Florida recoveries aren’t disclosed)
Nationally:
- 400,546 cases – 12,857 deaths – 21,711 recovered
Worldwide:
- 1,434,235 – 82,143 deaths – 302,453 recovered
We experienced more than 84k additional cases worldwide Tuesday, with 33k new cases in the US and over 1,914 deaths – both new daily highs in the United States. The most disconcerting aspect of the virus remains the death/recovery rate based on closed cases. The death rate remained at 21% for a third consecutive day. This after having reached a low of 6% about a month 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 soon. The traditional flu season generally ends in April.