A doctor holds a plastic bag full of swab specimen collected from journalists during lockdown to control the spread of the new coronavirus in Mumbai, India, Thursday, April 16, 2020. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday extended the world’s largest coronavirus lockdown to head off the epidemic’s peak, with officials racing to make up for lost time. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool) ORLANDO, Fla. – The latest numbers released Thursday morning show Florida now has 22,897 coronavirus patients, with 3,305 of those hospitalized due to COVID-19 and another 633 dead as a result of the respiratory illness. Compared to Wednesday evening, the last time the Florida Department of Health provided an update, there are 378 more cases, 19 more deaths and 56 more hospitalizations. Florida’s first case was confirmed on March 1 and since then, the numbers have steadily climbed. Thus far, the day with the most new infections was April 3 with 1,300 new cases. For comparison, Wednesday saw 941 new patients, according to FDOH records. Although the numbers continue to rise daily, health officials said they are seeing signs of improvement and at least one local doctor believes it’s possible that Orange County has already reached its peak — but that doesn’t mean residents can let their guards down. The state recently began including race and gender breakdowns of COVID-19 infection in the state dashboard for each county. However, it doesn’t offer a complete picture of those who have or had coronavirus, as most counties are reporting “unknown” under race for at least some cases. Some communities have seen a disproportionate amount of infections in minorities. In Orange County, the area with the most cases in the Central Florida region, under ethnicity there is no data or it was unknown for 41% of the 1,089 infections, according to […]
