Coronavirus in Florida – April 23rd
Bottom Line: We’ve had 707 new cases and 60 deaths in Florida attributed to the coronavirus over the past day. That’s significant improvement in new diagnosed cases, however Florida saw an increase in deaths attributed to the virus on Wednesday. Yesterday’s new case count is about 500 fewer than last Thursday and the peak for cases in our state remains April 3rd. This week I’ve begun tracking Florida’s performance against President Trump’s 3-Phase plan for reopening the country. It continues to show the potential for us to be on track for a potential phase-1 reopening in early May.
Florida remained 8th in the country in total cases and 10th in deaths. We’re the third most populous state. Florida’s performing far better than most states on a relative basis.We’re also testing more aggressively than most states, adjusted for population, making the performance of our state even more impressive. The range in age for positive tests in our state ranges from infants to 104. More than half of all of Florida’s cases currently are in the tri-county area with Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach having the most cases in the state in that order.
Here’s where we now stand in Florida:
- 28,576 cases – 927 deaths
Here’s the count in South Florida right now...
- Broward: 4,254
- Miami-Dade: 10,289
- Palm Beach: 2,413
While the overall positive test rate in Florida had been on a steady decline over the past week, dropping from a high of 11% to 9.6% - we did have an increase Wednesday that currently places us at 9.8%. This is important to two key reasons. An increase in positive test rates is often an indication of new hot spots and a two-week decline in the metric is also one of the three guidelines outlined by President Trump for a phase 1 reopening. It’s unclear if this setback resets the clock for two-weeks.
As a reminder, the further into testing we go, the newest diagnosed cases are new cases obtained through community spread. This reinforces the importance of adhering to the warnings of public officials including social distancing, safer-at-home declarations and wearing masks in public. The highest concentration of cases is coming from those between the ages of 45-54.