The data reveals that trends in COVID-19 cases are finally starting to diverge in blockchain-loving California and all-day Florida open.
California now sees about half of new cases of COVID-19 a day compared to Florida, a Johns Hopkins University Financial Times data analysis found.
On Wednesday, California recorded 5,750 new cases (or 14 per 100,000 people in the population) and 1,084 deaths, with a test positive rate of 3.45 percent.
In Florida, the test positivity rate was almost double that, with 6.76 percent, according to data from the COVID monitoring project. The state recorded 7,128 new cases, nearly 27 per capita, and an additional 127 deaths.
Parallel trends between the two states left public health experts last month, such as Biden adviser Jeff Zients, scratching their heads about how a state would implement some of the state’s most stringent and enduring measures. nation (California) could not come out better than Florida, which never imposed mask mandate.
Experts say the blockades are probably not as useful as they were at the start of the pandemic, but new data suggests California has an edge over Florida.
New cases of COVID-19 in California (blue) began to decline more strongly than in Florida (green) in late January. The West Coast state saw about 14 new infections per capita on Wednesday, compared to 27 per capita in Florida
On January 1, with the rise of Covid post-Thanksgiving in cases still flooding the United States and the second post-holiday wave was beginning to crash, California saw almost twice as many cases as Florida.
Since the first day of 2021, California has seen about 90 new coronavirus infections per day per capita, compared to 49 in Florida.
Orders to stay at home in California had just been renewed “indefinitely” on December 29, effectively blocking millions of people in Southern California.
Florida, meanwhile, was doing business more or less as usual. In fact, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order that blocked local governments in his state from implementing any restrictions that could leave workers out of work or close businesses.
According to a Wallethub analysis, Florida has the sixth loosest COVID-19 restriction in the country. By their metrics, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Iowa, and Arkansas have fewer restrictions on things like eating and wearing masks.
Still, it was better than California, for a moment.
New cases, in both California and Florida, continue to decline, as they have since early January, but the decline in the west coast state far exceeds that of the Sunshine State.
Since Feb. 10, new cases per capita in California have dropped by half, from 29 per 100,000 people to 14, as of Wednesday.
Florida has been slower to slow down COVID-19.
Yesterday the state registered 27 new cases per capita, compared to 35 on 10 February.
This is still a considerable drop (of 23%), but it is certainly not so precipitous.
The change came late last month. Cases per capita had been steadily lower and falling in Florida, but those in California were in a real free fall (although the fall has also softened a bit).
Suddenly, daily case rates in California fell below those in Florida and the gap widens.
On January 25, Governor Newsom withdrew home stay orders that had been set for Southern California.
For the time being, the decrease in cases is still strong and is maintained. Cases continue to fall in Florida as well.
But both states are facing a possible investment.
Florida has more cases of the “supercovida” variant of the United Kingdom B117 than any other state in the nation, with 489.
California has less than half that many, but has the second-largest number of B117 cases in the U.S., with 204.
Renowned researcher Fred Hutchinson, Dr. Trevor Bedford said last week that the two states would be the ones to see as predictors of how variants could affect the trajectory of the pandemic in the U.S. more broadly.
And California has a new problem: a variant of its own production that experts say will account for 90 percent of cases in the state next month and that a small set of data suggests could be more deadly.
