Coronavirus update – May 20th
Bottom Line: This daily update is designed to put everything in perspective with straight-forward facts. No hyperbole, no misinformation, no nonsense. The news across the country continued to be generally positive. With most of the country reopening the pace of new cases and deaths continued to drop Tuesday. The country had its 4th lowest day of new cases reported since March 29th, which is notable due to reopening but also the consistent increase in testing. Testing has essentially doubled nationwide since late March. The problem areas continue to be outside of the US -in Russia, 2nd in cases and Brazil, which is fourth and set to pass Spain for 3rd. Today will be a milestone day that’s bound to draw headlines as we’ll cross 5 million diagnosed cases worldwide.
Here’s where we stand as of now...
Worldwide:
- 4,999,235 – 325,125 deaths – 1,970,686 recovered
Nationally:
- 1,570,583 cases – 93,533 deaths – 361,180 recovered
Florida:
- 46,442 cases – 1,997 deaths
In Florida we had 502 new diagnosed cases and 55 deaths recorded Tuesday. The new case count was the lowest since last Wednesday and is welcomed news with all of Florida now in reopening mode. Florida remains 9th in the country in total cases and has fallen to 11th 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 dropped to another new low of 6.5%. 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 53.