April 21, not May 3.
That’s the new date the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington predicts that Florida will reach its peak for the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the new data released by epidemiologists and researchers at IHME, April 21 is when the state can expect to see a projected median of 242 deaths per day from the deadly virus.
The new date is two weeks earlier than the prediction IHME issued at the beginning of last week.
At the same time, IHME projects that the state will need 2,464 ICU beds when only 1,695 ICU beds are available throughout the entire state. That’s a shortage of 769 beds for critically ill patients needing care. IHME projects the state will exhaust its available ICU beds by April 14, about the time the U.S. will be reaching its peak.
Making matters worse, the state has only 2,095 ventilators available.
Expressing the dire outlook for the next two weeks, Dr. Deborah Birx, response coordinator for the White House Coronavirus Task Force, urged Americans not to go to the grocery store or the pharmacy unless absolutely necessary during a briefing Sunday evening.
As of Monday morning, Florida had reported over 13,000 COVID-19 cases with 230 deaths. Nationwide, the toll has reached 340,000 cases and over 10,000 deaths.
http://www.ko-fi.com/warrenrichardson
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