Coronavirus update – July 10th
Bottom Line: This daily update is designed to put everything in perspective with straight-forward facts. No hyperbole, no misinformation, no nonsense. Thursday brought about the highest daily cases worldwide and the second highest day in the United States. The recent surge in cases still hasn’t leveled off.
Additionally, we’re seeing an escalation in deaths, with the US now averaging the highest daily deaths in a month. The recent narrative that overall deaths are in decline, isn’t proving to be correct. While it’s true that the overall death rate is in decline with the recent rise in cases in younger people, the pace and total numbers of daily deaths have been on rise and are now back to levels of a month ago when the average diagnosed American was 15 years older on average.
Here’s where we stand as of now...
Worldwide:
- 12,397,927 – 557,566 deaths – 7,227,108 recovered
Nationally:
- 3,220,500 cases – 135,828 deaths – 1,426,483 recovered
Florida:
- 232,718 cases – 4,009 deaths - 30,907 recovered
In Florida, we had 8,935 new diagnosed cases on Thursday, as light improvement, however it was the deadliest to date with 120 deaths. The past week has produced the highest number of deaths in Florida since the pandemic began and the trend has steadily rising since June 18th - in other words, this isn’t just a case of a spike skewing the numbers.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 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 in Florida. After reaching a low of 5.2% in May, the rate since testing began has risen to 9.9% - including testing at greater than 10% positive, the target rate, each day since June 22nd - eclipsing 20% this week. The average age of someone diagnosed with the virus remains 39. We’re seeing the spike in cases coming from both an increase in testing and predominantly from increased community spread. The reinforces the importance of using proper safety measures like wearing masks in public and socially distancing.
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 135,000 deaths attributed to COVID-19, it is the deadliest virus in the United States since the 1918 pandemic which killed over 675,000 Americans.