According to a report from the Daily Beast, officials at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) believe that a “statistically significant” increase in pneumonia-related deaths in Florida may be related to the COVID-19 virus.
With Florida being one of the first states to re-open after most of the country went into an almost complete shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, reports of deaths in sthe state have been under more scrutiny than usual as health experts attempt to get their arms around the health crisis.
The report from the Beast’s Erin Banco states, “According to the data from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, since the beginning of the year there has been a total of 1,519 deaths in Florida where pneumonia and influenza were listed as the underlying cause. By comparison, in the same time period last year, Florida recorded 1,207 such deaths. The CDC has historically counted pneumonia and influenza deaths together. CDC officials told The Daily Beast that most of the deaths included in that category are pneumonia. Continue reading.