Coronavirus in Florida – April 29th
Bottom Line: We had 708 new cases and 83 deaths in Florida attributed to the coronavirus on Tuesday. Both of those numbers were higher than Monday’s totals – including Tuesday becoming the deadliest day for the virus in Florida. Less than ideal news as we’re expecting to hear about phase 1 reopening plans from Governor DeSantis today. Nevertheless, the new case count is still part of a longer-term trend of fewer diagnosed cases. After a spike in new cases last Thursday – the news has considerably better since and the peak day for new cases remains April 3rd. This supports the notion that last Thursday’s spike in cases was an outlier and the longer-term trend which suggests we’re well past the peak in Florida looks likely to be a reality.
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:
- 32,846 cases –1,171 deaths
Here’s the count in South Florida right now...
- Broward: 4,847
- Miami-Dade: 11,831
- Palm Beach: 2,877
The overall positive test rate in Florida continued to decline on Tuesday reaching a new low. The rate, now 8.9% since testing began, is well lower than the peak of 11% and continues to drop as testing continues to increase. Great signs. 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.