Coronavirus in Florida – April 27th
Bottom Line: We’ve had 1,880 new cases and 87 deaths in Florida attributed to the coronavirus since Friday morning. After a spike in new cases last Thursday – the news was considerably better through the weekend. Fewer diagnosed cases and the continued decline in positive test rates despite more testing capacity continuing to come online. This was cited by Governor DeSantis on Sunday as being especially important for next steps to be taken in Florida towards reopening. DeSantis stated he’s most focused on the rate of new cases and positive test results – when weighing next steps to reopen the state. Regarding testing, DeSantis said he’s authorizing pharmacies to administer COVID-19 tests and that testing will continue to increase through May – starting with a shipment of antibody tests the state is scheduled to receive this Friday. The peak for cases in our state remains April 3rd. Tracking Florida’s performance against President Trump’s 3-Phase plan for reopening the country...we have the potential 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:
- 31,528 cases – 1,074 deaths
Here’s the count in South Florida right now...
- Broward: 4,729
- Miami-Dade: 11,351
- Palm Beach: 2,697
The overall positive test rate in Florida declined from 9.8% Friday morning to 9.1% most recently. It remains lower than the peak of 11% reached about two weeks continuing an encouraging trend. 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.