Seattle, Wash. — Experts at the University of Washington are crunching numbers to help solve the question of when to lift lockdown measures in place due to the spread of COVID-19 or the coronavirus.
The university's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) dedicated a portion of its website to COVID-19 metrics, which is constantly being updated and they released a new map suggesting a time frame for each state.
The estimations are based on the number of infections a location has already seen, not just new ones, and determines a date when the projections fall below 1 infection per 1 million people.
Stating on their website, "we published our second iteration of estimates of when states may be able to consider easing currently implemented social distancing policies if – and only if – strong containment measures already have been instituted. "
Florida falls into the very last category for suggested re-opening, which is June 8 or later.
Experts already shifted the timelines once after some states lifted some social distancing measures, they admit though, “For some places, this may be an underestimate of public health capacity – in others, it could remain ambitious until containment efforts are scaled up.”
The chart below shows how Florida’s date moved from June 1 to June 14 in three days based on the lift of some social-distancing orders.
The IHME also developed the model showing cumulative COVID-19 death projections and they have updated those numbers. Click here for the link.