Florida Lags In Coronavirus Death Rates

From the Florida Phoenix: By Michael Moline - April 10, 2020

Florida is seeing a significantly lower death rate from COVID-19 than are other states reporting high caseloads, particularly New York.

The new coronavirus has killed just two people per 100,000 in Florida, according to an analysis by The New York Times. New York state’s rate is 40 per 100,000, followed by New Jersey at 22, Louisiana with 16, and Connecticut and Michigan tied at 11.

California, where officials moved quickly to sequester the population, had a rate of 1 death per 100,000 people. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was relatively late in issuing a statewide stay-home order.

The Times analysis was based on a sum of total deaths of 389. The latest numbers compiled by the Florida Department of Health included 390 deaths as of 10 a.m. Friday.

The hardest hit Florida counties — Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach — have seen death rates of 4, 3, and 5 per 100,000, respectively, measured against high overall population numbers.

The state’s highest death rate was 8 in DeSoto County, followed by 7 each in Baker and Glades counties. A significant number of counties have yet to see fatalities. (Links are to state data.) The statewide caseload for infections was 17,531 as of Friday morning.

DeSantis didn’t directly address the death rate during a news conference Friday in Jacksonville. He did note that Florida has seen no deaths in people under 25 years old. And that is true, according to Florida Department of Health data on deaths across Florida.

The data, which the Florida Phoenix also has been analyzing, shows that the youngest person who died from COVID-19 was a Sarasota man, age 28. The oldest person who died from the coronavirus was 101 — a female in Dade County.

Of the 390 deaths as of this morning, the average age of death was a 75.4 years. Of all deaths, about 62 percent were men and 38 percent women.

Eighty-five percent of the state’s fatalities have been to people aged 65 and up, targeted by the state in its initial testing, along with symptomatic people with underlying serious medical conditions, DeSantis said. (The data analyzed by the Phoenix show about 82 percent of fatalities are people aged 65 and higher.)

The Phoenix analysis also shows that Palm Beach has the highest number of deaths in Florida, 76. Miami-Dade has 74, and Broward, 72, according to the death figures Friday morning.

In Jacksonville, the rate of positive tests has been around 5 percent, suggesting a slower rate of spread than elsewhere in the country, the governor said. Miami-Dade County has seen positive rates of about 15 to 20 percent.

“Look to see that positive number,” he said. If it’s relatively low, “then I think you’re doing the right thing. Just keep at it.”

DeSantis spoke at a Jacksonville testing site that had been set up by the federal government through Friday, along with facilities in Miami-Dade and Orlando. After the state decided to assume the obligation to continue testing at the sites, the governor said, federal officials committed to continue sending supplies.

Additionally, the state will expand eligibility for testing to encompass anybody who’s been in close contact with someone who’s tested positive for the coronavirus.

Florida has conducted more than 160,000 tests thus far and “you have thousands and thousands more where the results will be coming in over the next few days,” DeSantis said. “I think by next week we’ll probably hit 200,000 tests at some point.”

That works out to a rate of 1 in 140,000 Floridians who have been tested.

Phoenix editor Diane Rado contributed to this report.

This story was originally published by the Florida Phoenix. For more stories from the Florida Phoenix, visit FloridaPhoenix.com.