Coronavirus update – July 6th
Bottom Line: This daily update is designed to put everything in perspective with straight-forward facts. No hyperbole, no misinformation, no nonsense. Independence Day weekend was a record setting weekend for new cases in the US, Florida and specifically South Florida. The summer heat and humidity still hasn’t been the positive catalyst we’d hoped for to begin to turn the corner on the pandemic. The continued increases in cases have led to the highest active case count since the pandemic began with over 1.5 million Americans currently fighting the virus,including more than 150,000 Floridians. Simply put, we’re all at the highest risk of contracting the coronavirus right now, then we’ve been at any prior time during the pandemic.
Here’s where we stand as of now...
Worldwide:
- 11,571,720–537,045 deaths – 6,542,708 recovered
Nationally:
- 2,982,928 cases – 132,569 deaths – 1,289,564 recovered
Florida:
- 200,111 cases – 3,732 deaths - 27,706 recovered
In Florida, we had over 10,000 new diagnosed cases three out of the past four days passing 200k total cases yesterday. South Florida remains the epicenter of the virus with Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties having the most cases in that order. There are now 92 zip codes in South Florida which are hotspots including 19 in Palm Beach County, 25 in Broward and 48 in Miami-Dade.
The overall positive test rate continues to rise as well in Florida. After reaching a low of 5.2% in May, the rate since testing began has risen to 9.1% - including testing at greater than 10% positive, the target rate, each day for the past two weeks. We’re seeing the spike in cases coming from both an increase in testing and predominantly from increased community spread.
The average age of someone diagnosed with COVID-19 continues to drop and now nearly reflects the demographics of Florida. The average age of a diagnosed Floridian has dropped from 54 in May to 39 currently. We’re continuing to see the fastest increase coming from those between the ages of 25-34, which likely speaks to younger adults being more reckless and less likely to follow safety protocols.
Florida is 4th in total cases, while the state is 9th in deaths. Florida is the third most populous state, so despite current struggles – we've fared better on balance than most states since the pandemic began. With over 132,000 deaths attributed to COVID-19, it is the deadliest virus in the United States since the 1918 pandemic which killed over 675,000 Americans.