Coronavirus update – April 22nd
Bottom Line: This daily update is designed to put everything in perspective with straight-forward facts. No hyperbole, no misinformation, nononsense. Tuesday’s information was mixed. On the plus side, the FDA’s first approved at-home test for COVID-19. The test kit created by LabCorp, will be immediately rolled out for those working on the front-lines in healthcare and first responders. It’s expected to be widely available for sale within “weeks”. Also, the general trend in new cases across the country continued to suggest the peak might be behind us with a lower overall death rate as well. On the flip side a VA study of hydroxychloroquine revealed no benefit in treating COVID-19. In fact, those treated with the drug used to treat malaria, performed worse than those who weren’t treated with any prescribed drug. Also, the CDC warned of a likely second wave of the coronavirus to emerge with the traditional flu season this fall. They’re recommending flu shots as soon as they’re available this summer to prevent an overburdening of the healthcare system.
Here’s where we stand as of now...
Worldwide:
- 2,565,299 – 177,775 deaths – 696,779 recovered
Nationally:
- 819,175 cases – 45,343 deaths – 82,973 recovered
Florida:
- 27,869 cases – 867 deaths (specific Florida recoveries aren’t disclosed)
We’ve experienced over 80,000 additional diagnosed cases and over 7,000 deaths worldwide on Tuesday. Those figures were both higher than the totals reported on Monday. We’re seeing the virus ramp up in previously lightly impacted areas – especially in Russia which saw its biggest one day jump in diagnosed cases. In the United States, we had over 26,000 new cases and more than 2,800 deaths. The new diagnosed case count was lower – supporting the recent improved trends in the United States – although the death toll was higher than Monday’s totals. For the month of April, COVID-19 remains the top estimated cause of death in the United States.
The most disconcerting aspect of the virus remains the death/recovery rate based on closed cases - though we did have improvement for the first time in over two weeks. With nearly 875,000 closed cases, the death rate dropped to 20%. The last time the closed case rate was 20% was April 5th. We reached a low of 6% in early March - hopefully we’re on our way down with case counts and the death rates. The common pattern with the virus spreading has been an increase in death rates with vulnerable early on, followed by improving rates overtime as people begin to recover which has often taken weeks.