Top state health official highlights the low death rate and tremendous increase in testing.
The senior vice president of University of South Florida Health, Dr. Charles Lockwood, made distinctions between the rise in positive coronavirus cases in his state and the outbreak that was experienced earlier in the year by the state of New York. While ICUs have experienced a surge in capacity, the state and the hospitals have had three months to prepare. They also have an inventory of ventilators which have not yet been needed or used.
The majority of new diagnoses are between the ages of 15 and 44, Dr. Lockwood said, with most of the hospitalizations occurring for those over 55. They have an adequate store of the drugs necessary to treat the cases, and they “seem to have peaked about a week ago in the emergency department visits for COVID-like illnesses and also, for influenza-like illnesses.”
Coronavirus testing that Florida governor Ron DeSantis had targeted to triple just two months ago, has far exceeded that mark. This past weekend saw 143,000 tests done in a single day, according to Dr. Lockwood. He also reported that the positive test rate, which had been 20 percent just one week ago, is trending down to about 11 percent currently. At this point, the fatality rate in the state of Florida is at 1.5 percent of cases.
As the Lord Leads, Pray with Us…
- For the state of Florida as they trend toward lower numbers of cases and fatalities related to the coronavirus.
- For the state governors to take a whole-health approach to addressing the pandemic.
- For President Trump and the Coronavirus Task Force to have wisdom as they continue to manage public health.
Sources: Daily Wire, Wall Street Journal
