Coronavirus update – May 12th
Bottom Line: This daily update is designed to put everything in perspective with straight-forward facts. No hyperbole, no misinformation, no nonsense. The news continued to improve on Monday. With at least 41 states in some form of phase one reopening, the United States had the fewest new diagnosed cases of COVID-19 since March 26th. There continues to be ample evidence that states are able to begin to reopen while simultaneously reducing the spread of the virus while increasing testing. This is encouraging as 64 of Florida’s 67 counties are now eight full days into reopening with Palm Beach County having joined yesterday. It appears Monday is still a target day for Broward and Miami-Dade. Outside of the United States, Russia now third in total cases, along with Brazil continue to be the areas of greatest growth and concern.
Here’s where we stand as of now...
Worldwide:
- 4,268,496 – 287,463 deaths – 1,533,701 recovered
Nationally:
- 1,385,834 cases – 81,795 deaths – 262,225 recovered
Florida:
- 40,596 cases – 1,721 deaths
In Florida we had 386 new diagnosed cases and 14 deaths over the past day. These totals continue to pace near the lowest levels recorded in the state since testing began. Florida remains 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’ve also tested more aggressively than most states, with only New York having tested more than Florida. More than half of all of Florida’s cases remain in the tri-county area with Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach having the most cases in the state in that order.
The overall positive test rate in Florida continued to improve Monday dropping to yet another new low of 7.3% - that's down from the peak of 11%. As a reminder, 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 and wearing masks in public. The average age of someone diagnosed with COVID-19 in Florida is 52.