Data Without Doctoring Dr. David Owen 08/31/2020
Morning update: Continued very nice improvement in the effects of the pandemic with low number of assigned deaths and diminishing hospitalizations. 1/2 the 68 deaths noted today were from Dade, but hospitalizations in that county continue to curve downward. A couple of deaths are still being assigned to the last week of July but relatively few are being assigned to the period after Aug. 8th which portends well for death counts in that month. Recent daily state death numbers, outside of Dade are at pre-spike levels at this time and we'll see if this holds.
Beds freely available in all three counties with particularly nice improvement in Broward over the last few days. Death rates statewide and in tri-county area are stable, however, representing catch up in deaths with declining testing. % positive test remains around the 5% area and ED covid admissions are below May levels. The conclusion from all of this is clear and it is just a matter of seeing how low we go until we arrive at our next plateau.
Schools should be aggressively planning to reopen classrooms NOW. With the recent data and continued strong downtrends there is no reason to remain out of the classroom. The chance of increased covid cases from the re-openings is set now and will not change if we wait any longer to reopen. ___ www.frankcastingmediagroup.com www.frankmulhall.com