Florida Suffers Record Jump In COVID-19 Deaths As Positivity Rate Tops 15%: Live Updates

Summary:

• Arizona sees another decline in new cases
• Florida reports 156 deaths, new daily record
• Global cases top 13.5 mil
• HK reports 63 new cases for 3rd record in a week
• US reports 65k+ cases; 2nd highest daily tally
• Indonesia orders social distancing violators punished
• Tokyo suffers record jump
• Victoria reports more than 300 new cases Thursday
• ICU deaths moving lower around the world
• Texas reports daily record yesterday

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Update (1130ET): Arizona reported 3,259 (+2.5%) new cases on Thursday, compared with a 7-day average of 2.8%.

Hospitalizations were down 39 (-1.12%) from the prior day to 3,454; officials reported 58 (+2.4%) new deaths, bringing the statewide death toll to 2,492. Total cases climbed to 134,613.

In Maricopa County, home to Phoenix and the worst-hit part of the state, there are now more than 86,000 new coronavirus cases, and more than 1,200 deaths.

The percentage of ICU beds occupied declined slightly to 89%.

The state’s total positivity rate declined to 12.1%.

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Update (1040ET): Florida was one of the few silver linings yesterday. As California and Texas posted new records, the Sunshine State reported roughly 10k new cases, its lowest tally in days. But that reversed on Thursday as the state reported nearly 14k new cases, a near record daily total.

But that changed on Thursday, as Florida reported 13,837 (+4.6%) new cases over the last 24 hours, per the state Department of Health (that’s compared with a 7-day average of 4.4%) and another record number of new daily deaths.

Florida’s total case count surpassed 300k earlier in the week; presently, it stands at 315,775 following Thursday’s increase (all cases are reported with a 24-hour delay).

But a more disheartening headline on Thursday was the death toll, which came in at a record 156 on Thursday, beating the last record by more than 30 cases. That brought the statewide death toll to 4,677, and comes as media warns about the risk of deaths surging in the coming days and weeks due to the ‘death lag’. The percentage of tests that came back positive was 15.4%.

As Arizona’s outbreak continues to slow (just as Goldman anticipated), likely due at least in part to Gov Ducey’s aggressive action, Florida has cemented its position as coronavirus leader for the entire US.

Experts are blaming the spike on tourists in hot spots like Miami ignoring social distancing regulations, and spreading the virus from other parts of the US.

Whatever the cause or causes, this will undoubtedly ratchet up pressure on Gov Ron DeSantis to make mask-wearing mandatory in public.

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Days after adopting its more restrictive measures to combat COVID-19 yet, Hong Kong has reported a record single-day jump in newly confirmed cases, its third record-setting tally in a week.

A record 63 local cases were reported on Thursday. Of these, 35 were of unknown origin, according to the city’s health department. The city-state’s new outbreak has infected 300+ people under two weeks, with more than a third of infections bearing no discernible connections to preexisting outbreaks.

Meanwhile, in the US, as the nationwide death toll topped 140k, the number of new cases reported yesterday (remember these numbers come with a 24-hour delay) was the second-highest yet, coming in at more than 65k.

Yesterday, both Texas and California reported new single-day records, which certainly helped drive the total higher.

As another wave of infections sweeps across southeast Asia, Indonesia is planning to fine violators of social distancing rules under a new law as President Joko Widodo scrambles to contain an outbreak that his government once deliberately tried to ignore and dismiss as nonexistent, despite the threat posed to his people.

Elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region, Tokyo also reported another daily record of 286 new coronavirus cases as Japanese grow concerned about the outbreak in the capital, which is now under level 4 COVID-19 alert, the highest possible. The government is now trying to discourage travel and commuting, scrapping a campaign to promote domestic tourism. While the city’s latest cluster was traced to nightclubs, officials believe it has now traveled much further.

Meanwhile, Australia’s second-most-populous state, Victoria, also recorded 317 new cases, its biggest spike yet too, as the state struggles to clamp down on a sudden reemergence of infections that has threatened to spread across all of Australia. The jump comes one week after Melbourne and some of the surrounding area entered a new partial lockdown.

The 7-day average of COVID-19 deaths in the US as ticked higher to levels not seen in 2 weeks as the pattern appears to plateau. The US reported roughly 1,000 deaths on Thursday.

Globally, the US reported another 230k+ new cases, and just under 5k deaths, driving the global case total north of 13.5 million (exact total: 13,727,388 per Worldometer).

But while the numbers on the chart appear to show a slight tick higher, the deluge of MSM warnings that the death lag is very, very real have seemed almost unhinged in their authors’ refusal to acknowledge several factors – including lower median age of those infected and more effective treatment strategies – that might constrain deaths from returning to their highs from the NYC peak. Or 3,000 deaths a day, as the NYT once predicted.

However, the latest data out of Bloomberg shows that overall mortality continues to decline. Overall ICU deaths have fallen to just under 42% at the end of May from almost 60% in March, according to the first systematic analysis of two dozen studies involving more than 10,000 patients spanning three continents. Such news is fortunate given the “unprecedented demand” that the virus has imposed on these services.