We entered the week with renewed optimism of the peak in cases being behind us nationwide and Monday did nothing to take away from that thought. Overall new case count, though still high, is below the trailing two-week trend line which is important to President Trump’s 3-phase plan for reopening. With several states meeting the phase 1 requirements, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Tennessee announced phase 1 reopening plans. Meanwhile, President Trump signed an executive order temporarily suspending new immigration into the United States until the national emergency has ended. We have data-driven progress evidenced across the country as May has the appearance of being a much better month for us and likely people around the world.
As of this entry, there are 2,484,314 cases, 170,501 deaths, and 652,761 recoveries worldwide. In the US, there are 792,938 cases, 42,518 deaths, and 72,389 recoveries. In Florida, we have 27,058 cases and 823 deaths, the specific Florida recoveries aren’t disclosed.
We’ve experienced over 70,000 additional diagnosed cases and over 5,000 deaths worldwide on Monday. The news has been improving but clearly, we're not in the clear with the virus yet. In the United States, we had over 28,000 new cases and nearly 2,000 deaths. For the month of April, COVID-19 remains the top estimated cause of death in the United States.
We’ve had 744 new cases and 49 deaths in Florida attributed to the coronavirus over the past day but in general, the news continued to be more favorable than not in our state. It’s looking increasingly likely that the peak for total cases occurred on April 3rd. Yesterday I began tracking Florida’s performance against President Trump’s 3-Phase plan for reopening the country. It showed the potential for us to be on track for a potential phase-1 reopening on May 1st. Yesterday’s performance statewide would appear to keep us on track for that possibility with a steady number of new cases, which are lower than the recent peak hit last Thursday and the lowest percentage of positive test results in over two weeks.
Overall hospitalizations are currently at their highest levels in Florida, with 4,000 COVID-19 patients currently being served. That’s an increase of about 200 over Sunday, though Florida’s hospital system still has capacity available if needed. 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. 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.
- Broward: 4,078
- Miami-Dade: 9,657
- Palm Beach: 2,260
We continue to see a high rate of positive test results in Florida but the news continued to improve through Monday. To date, 9.9% of all tests for COVID-19 have come back positive. That’s a decline from 11% at the peak, backing up the idea we’ve crossed the peak in Florida. Still, 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 and safer-at-home declarations.
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