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Six Months of Coronavirus: Two States, Two Very Different Surges
This week, Florida surpasses New York's early peak in cases, but current surge has been far less deadly
Published July, 2020 at 10:00 a.m. ET
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On Jan. 21, the first confirmed Covid-19 case in the U.S. was disclosed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, when an infected traveler returned to Washington state from Wuhan, China. In the six months since, the pandemic has reached more than 3.8 million cases and more than 140,000 deaths in the U.S., according to Johns Hopkins University.
As the U.S. continues to grapple with the pandemic, two of the hardest-hit states—New York and Florida—show how differently the virus has affected certain regions.
The pandemic in the spring, with New York as its center, brought lockdowns and rising death rates. With summer, Florida has become a new focus of the pandemic in the U.S. as the nation debates reopening amid a surge in cases. But deaths are slower to follow.
New York was the hardest-hit state early on, accounting for half of the U.S. cases at one point. Florida was relatively spared early on, but now represents nearly 20% of recent cases and consistently reports among the highest number of daily cases.
In Florida, the rate of new cases in the past week adjusted for population surpassed the levels New York saw in April.
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An increase in testing has led to an increase in confirmed cases, which can include people with less severe symptoms, who might not have been identified when testing was scarcer.
But more cases are not just being found due to the increase in testing.
The percentage of positive tests in New York has stayed low...
...while Florida is seeing a concerning rise in the percentage of tests coming back positive, a likely sign of broader spread of the virus in the state.
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America closed down in the spring, but by May, Florida was outpacing New York to reopen nonessential businesses.
The growth in cases in Florida, however, hasn’t come with the same rise in confirmed deaths. Through mid-April, nearly 6% of total confirmed cases in New York were fatal, while through July in Florida, about 1.5% of the state’s confirmed cases have resulted in deaths.
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Across the U.S., the percentage of confirmed cases resulting in hospitalization was down through June, as well as the percentage of those resulting in death.
One reason for the lower death rate in Florida now is that a greater share of younger people, for whom the disease is typically less deadly, are testing positive.
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By
Taylor Umlauf, Danny Dougherty and Lindsay Huth