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Current as of Oct. 2, 2020, at 7:45 a.m. |
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COVID-19 Testing Sites in Florida
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Drive-Thru Testing sites available are listed by county. Each walk up site can test up to 200 individuals per day. Access the list here.
Safe. Smart. Step-by-Step.
Graphs, Charts, and Real-time Tracking of COVID-19
Data Sources
Data Sources on Social Media
Other Resources
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Current Statistics
- Fatality rate in Florida - 2.1%
- Covid fatality rate in FL by age group:
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15-24 years old - .03%
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25-34 years old - .07%
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35-44 years old - .23%
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45-54 years old - .54%
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55-64 years old - 1.7%
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65-74 years old - 5.7%
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75 and up - 17.7%
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Seasonal influenza mortality rate in the US (2017 CDC) 18-49 yo - .02%
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Median age of new Covid cases - 41 years old
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Emergency department visits w/ COVID-like illness - 15% decrease
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ICU beds available in Florida - 23%
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Hospital beds available in Florida - 24%
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Vaccine Tracking
Last updated: October 1, 2020 9:00 AM PST
213
vaccines are in development.
35
are now in clinical testing.
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President Trump revealed early Friday morning that he and First Lady Melania have tested positive for coronavirus.
Trump’s diagnosis comes with just over a month remaining before the presidential election.
“Tonight, [the First Lady] and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!” Trump wrote on Twitter.
White House physician Sean Conley said on Friday that the two were “well at this time” and that his medical team would “maintain a vigilant watch.” Conley added that Trump would “continue carrying out his duties without disruption while recovering.”
The president and first lady were tested upon learning that senior aide Hope Hicks tested positive for coronavirus. Hicks flew with Trump on Air Force One to a Wednesday campaign rally in Duluth, Minn., and she began exhibiting symptoms at about the time of the rally, a person familiar with the matter told the New York Times. Hicks tested negative for coronavirus on Wednesday morning, which allowed her to board Air Force One, CBS News reported.
Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen tested negative for coronavirus on Friday following the president’s diagnosis.
“Karen and I send our love and prayers to our dear friends President [Trump] and [First Lady] Melania Trump,” Pence wrote on Twitter. “We join millions across America praying for their full and swift recovery. God bless you President Trump & our wonderful First Lady Melania.”
Biotech company Moderna announced on Tuesday that its coronavirus vaccine candidate elicited immune responses in older adults from a Phase 1 study in levels comparable to those seen in younger adults. The findings were published Tuesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The vaccine candidate, dubbed mRNA-1273, “induced consistently high levels” of neutralizing antibody levels in 40 healthy participants across two age cohorts – 56-70 and 71 and over – per the company announcement.
The 100 microgram dose elicited higher antibody levels, “supporting the selection of the 100 µg dose for further study in the Phase 3 trial.”
Company officials said the majority of adverse events were mild to moderate, like headache, fatigue and chills, among others.
After the second vaccination, one patient in the 56-70 cohort with the 25 microgram dose experienced a fever, and a second patient in the older cohort and higher dose had fatigue, but officials said “clinical laboratory values of Grade 2 or higher revealed no pattern of concern” and that the patients would be followed through 13 months for a longer assessment.
The findings were said to be confirmed through three live virus assays, and “robust neutralizing activity was observed in all participants 14 days after the second vaccination.”
The U.S. government already struck a deal with Moderna for 100 million doses of the vaccine, with an option to buy an additional 400 million doses.
It was one of the most consequential policy debates of our time.
Do we send our kids out to school in middle of an epidemic that poses no meaningful risk to children and younger people? The teachers' unions fought tooth and nail to get many states to keep their schools closed. They even held mock funerals to protest the openings. So, over a month into the opening of schools in the areas where they failed to keep them closed, did we experience mass funerals?
"Feared coronavirus outbreaks in schools yet to arrive, early data shows," read a recent title from the Washington Post. Kudos for their willingness to return to the issue rather than dropping it and moving on to the next panic-inducing prediction like a drive-by shooting. In the long and thorough article, the authors state the obvious: "Public health experts have found little evidence that the virus is spreading inside [school] buildings, and the rates of infection are far below what is found in the surrounding communities."
Advocates for opening schools have made the point that not only is the virus not dangerous at all for children, but children rarely spread the virus. The fact that we are not seeing entire classes and grades catching the virus, but rather some isolated cases here and there, demonstrates that the children likely get the virus from home and would likely have contracted it anyway, but are not major spreaders to each other or to other teachers in school.
Whereas college students have spread the virus quickly (although it is also not dangerous for them), new data from Brown University researchers shows very little evidence of outbreaks more than a month into the school openings.
While there is no complete surveillance data of all open schools, Emily Oster, an economics professor at Brown University, created a dashboard of 300 schools offering in-person classes. During the first two weeks of September, she and fellow researchers found just a 0.078% infection rate for students and a 0.15% for teachers, "much lower" than the community infection rate in most areas, such as in Texas.
According to the Post, "Teacher's unions in Texas that keep track of infections say they have been surprised by how low it was."
Well, knock me over with a feather. Studies from countries including the U.K., Australia, Switzerland, Canada, Netherlands, France, Ireland, Taiwan, and Iceland have all failed to find meaningful spread from school-age children. Sweden kept the younger grades open throughout the entire pandemic and didn't experience a single death. The Public Health Agency of Sweden found no measurable difference in outcomes for children between Sweden and Finland, even though Finland closed its schools.
The Washington Post also observes that data from 37 school districts in Connecticut, New York, and Pennsylvania that opened schools shows "there have been 23 confirmed cases of the coronavirus across 20 schools and no indication that the virus was spread in schools."
In other words, what we are consistently seeing in grade school is that, unlike in college dorms, there are just a smattering of cases here and there with no evidence of children driving the transmission. A comprehensive review of COVID-19 cases in German schools conducted by the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin found that "most school outbreaks had few cases per outbreak, with more cases among older age groups who could have been staff or other persons epidemiologically linked to school outbreaks." Additionally, they observe, "considering class sizes of usually 20 to 25 students per class the low number of cases in each age year suggests rather limited onward transmission within classes."
The bottom line is that a mere discovery of some cases in schools does not mean these kids were infected from the school setting or would have avoided getting it by being out of school. The Post cites a spokeswoman for the Cherokee County, Georgia, school district, where there were several hundred confirmed cases.
"District spokeswoman Barbara Jacoby said that none of the cases had been definitively linked to in-school exposure, although it had not been ruled out in about a dozen," wrote the article's authors. It turns out it was spreading far and wide throughout the community in August.
Both during the 1957 Asian flu and the Spanish flu of 1918, it was observed that children had higher rates of contraction at home. A 2006 paper from Johns Hopkins observed, "When schools closed for a winter holiday during the 1918 pandemic in Chicago, 'more influenza cases developed among pupils . . . than when schools were in session.'" And that was with a flu for which children are more primary vectors for spread.
And of course, this is all a debate over negligible cases that are usually milder than the flu or strep throat or, often, even a cold. We are not seeing any greater threat to children of getting clinically ill from the virus because of schools reopening, much less fatalities. Yet there are still an estimated 711 million children out of school across the globe because so many schools are shut down.
Remember that CNN article that came out on July 30 suggesting children are mass spreaders with higher viral loads than even adults? Well, at least the Washington Post had the decency to revisit the issue now that we are living through the reality of schools opening. The paper CNN cited openly admitted that "transmissibility was not assessed in this study." Which, of course, is par for the course in an information warfare campaign driven by panic and feelings, not facts.
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The Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq closed September down 3%, 4.1%, and 4.8%, respectively, according to Market Insider.
September is typically not a strong month for trading — since 1950, it has been the worst-performing month on average. But traditional trading patterns were exacerbated by fears of a tech bubble on the verge of bursting and the lack of additional coronavirus relief legislation, according to DataTrek.
CEOs also expressed concern that without additional aid, it would be difficult "to prevent economic recovery from being derailed," the Washington Examiner reported days before the market's late-September turnaround.
Between Sept. 2 and Sept. 23, the Dow shed more than 2,300 points.
Stocks rallied across the board after Sept. 24, and indices posted consecutive gains to close out the month.
This quarter's growth follows a string of record-setting months after markets cratered at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic. By March 16, stocks had erased nearly all gains since President Trump's inauguration in 2017. Both the S&P and the Nasdaq are up more than 25% from March.
Stocks ended September roughly, returning to the levels from the beginning of 2020. The Nasdaq has far outstripped other indices, however, up 24% for the year.
The U.S. auto industry’s recovery gathered momentum in the third quarter, with sales at auto makers rebounding from coronavirus-related lows and buyers returning to showrooms.
Strong demand for trucks and sport-utility vehicles is driving the comeback, which is occurring faster than many had expected this summer. Also contributing is an increase in urban consumers turning to car ownership, as well as easier credit conditions that make car payments more affordable.
While sales at many car companies are still down compared with a year ago, analysts said the selling pace in September was expected to be closer to what it was earlier this year—before the pandemic brought business to a near-standstill this spring.
General Motors Co. GM 2.67% said Thursday its third-quarter U.S. sales fell nearly 10% from a year earlier, but the drop was narrower than the 34% decline posted in the second quarter, when all of its North American factories were idled temporarily to protect workers from the spread of the virus. GM has said its production has mostly returned to pre-pandemic levels.
The Detroit auto maker has benefited financially from surging demand for the big pickup trucks that have long been its sweet spot, as well as cost-cutting measures put in place years in advance.
Rival Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV also reported a 10% drop in third-quarter U.S. sales, but the decline was slimmer than the 39% decrease it posted for the second quarter. Ford Motor Co. is expected to release its third-quarter sales Friday, and numbers from Tesla Inc. are also expected in the coming days.
Car-shopping website Edmunds.com estimates total U.S. auto-industry sales for the third quarter will still be down 11%, but that is an improvement from the nearly 31% plunge that occurred in the second quarter.
Leading the recovery is rising demand from consumers buying cars at dealerships, as opposed to fleet operators and other businesses that purchase vehicles in bulk and are still reeling from the crisis.
A shortage of available vehicles—a hangover from the car-factory shutdowns this spring—is helping to drive prices higher as car companies and dealers have pulled back on sales promotions and other discounts.
Car shoppers on average paid a record $35,655 for a new vehicle in September, up 5.6% from the same month last year, according to research firm J.D. Power. That trend has been helping to boost profitability for many dealers, even as sales hover below previous-year levels.
Jerry Seiner Dealerships in Salt Lake City achieved one of its best third quarters for sales and profitability, Chief Executive Chris Hemmersmeier said. Customers gravitated mostly to new, high-end pickup trucks, which Mr. Hemmersmeier said are still scarce.
Yet he worries that without more government stimulus, customers on the lower end of the wage scale will be locked out of the market as the economic effects of the pandemic wear on through the end of the year.
“We’re still going to need those customers,” he said.
September sales were boosted in part by the Labor Day holiday weekend, when many dealerships offer discounts to lure customers, but the overall performance points to strong underlying demand for new vehicles, said Thomas King, J.D. Power’s president of data and analytics. “This is despite tight inventory for many of the most popular vehicles.”
South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co. is among several auto makers leading the industry’s comeback. Hyundai, which recently expanded its lineup to include popular full-size SUVs, said its U.S. sales increased 5.4% in September, compared with a year earlier, and fell only 1% in the third quarter.
The Japanese car companies, which have a smaller presence in the truck markets that are now booming, have been slower to recuperate. But for some, September was looking up.
Toyota Motor Corp. TM -0.01% said its third-quarter U.S. sales were down nearly 11% over the year-earlier period, but it posted a 16% gain in September, with SUVs such as the Rav4 and Highlander carrying the company’s performance.
Honda Motor Co. ’s third-quarter sales fell 9.5%, but the auto maker’s September sales increased 12%.
Nissan Motor Co., which relies more on fleet business and has been undergoing a restructuring, posted a 32% decline in third-quarter sales. The company no longer provides monthly sales figures.
While individual shoppers have flocked back to the market, sales to fleet operators and businesses have remained depressed, particularly to rental-car firms such as Avis Budget Group Inc. and Hertz Global Holdings Inc., whose operations have been hit hard by travel restrictions related to the pandemic.
Fleet sales are expected to account for just 11% of new-vehicle purchases in the third quarter, compared with 17% during the July-to-September period in 2019, according to Edmunds.com.
“The last piece of the puzzle for the industry’s recovery is fleet sales,” Edmunds analyst Jessica Caldwell said in a written statement. “It will likely take a bit longer for this side of the business to make as dramatic a comeback as its retail counterparts.”
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From stricter penalties for ripping off military veterans to new guidelines for specialty license plates, 24 laws go into effect Thursday after being passed during the 2020 legislative session.
The changes are among 206 bills that cleared the House and Senate before the session ended March 19. Of those bills, 201, including a new state budget, were signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Most of the new laws went into effect July 1, the start of the state’s fiscal year. But DeSantis also signed a batch on Sept. 19, including the license plate changes.
HB 1135, which revises the state’s specialty license plate program, includes expanding the potential number of designs from the current 123 to 150 and requiring a minimum of 1,000 sales before new specialty plates can move forward and existing plates can remain in circulation.
Among the measures (that became) law Thursday:
- HB 1135, which revises the state’s specialty license plate program. That includes expanding the potential number of designs from the current 123 to 150 and requiring a minimum of 1,000 sales before new specialty plates can move forward and existing plates can remain in circulation.
- The bill also creates plates for Auburn University, the University of Alabama and the University of Georgia and establishes a “super tag” template for nine black fraternities and sororities dubbed the “Divine 9:” Alpha Phi Alpha, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Kappa Alpha Psi, Omega Psi Phi, Delta Sigma Theta, Phi Beta Sigma, Zeta Phi Beta, Sigma Gamma Rho and Iota Phi Theta.
- HB 387, which sets a $25 fee for most specialty license plates, with a $50 fee for the Auburn, Alabama and Georgia tags.
- HB 205, which expands a portion of state law designed to prevent people from misrepresenting service in the military. The bill makes it a third-degree felony to use such misrepresentations to land jobs or political offices.
- SB 294, which creates the “Florida Veterans Protection Act” to make it a first-degree felony to obtain or attempt to swindle $50,000 or more from 10 or more military veterans...
- SB 680, which expands a 2017 law that increased penalties for people who remove fins from sharks and discard the rest of the sharks in the ocean. The new law bans the import, export and sale of shark fins but includes exceptions for people who already had federal shark fishing permits as of Jan. 1 and seafood dealers who had federal shark dealer permits. Shark fins are considered a delicacy in parts of Asia.
- HB 333, which prohibits courts from granting bail to adult defendants who are appealing convictions in cases that require registering as sexual offenders or sexual predators and in which the victims were minors.
- HB 675, which allows law-enforcement officers to make warrantless arrests for indecent exposure. Currently, officers need to have witnessed the indecent exposure or obtain warrants to make arrests.
- SB 1286, which makes a series of changes to laws prohibiting contraband at prisons and other types of state and local detention facilities. The bill, in part, adds medical marijuana, hemp and industrial hemp to a list of prohibited contraband. Also, it addresses issues related to cell phones and vaping devices.
- HB 133, which makes a series of changes related to towing vessels and vehicles. In part, the bill requires local governments to set maximum rates for towing and immobilizing vessels. It also prohibits counties and cities from imposing fees on wrecker operators or towing businesses.
- HB 915, which expands state oversight of 20 commercial service airports, including requiring audits every seven years at the Orlando, Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Tampa international airports. All 20 must post online documents such as meeting notices, agendas and budgets.
Many of the measures taking effect this week keep in place exemptions to state-public records laws. Such exemptions often are subject to repeal unless they are re-enacted by lawmakers.
Those include exemptions related to law-enforcement body camera recordings within private residences, health care facilities or other places where people would expect privacy (HB 7015); email addresses collected by the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles for vehicle-registration renewal notices and driver-license renewal notices (HB 7001); and information about the identities of victims of child abuse and sexual offenses and minors who are victims of human trafficking (HB 7019).
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