Several readers have asked us to plot the numbers for specific areas in the Keys that are seeing the largest number of positive novel coronavirus cases. These areas are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 compared with other areas of the Keys for different reasons. Key West, of course, with its larger population and which had thousands of visitors coming in daily by air, car and boat would be expected to have the largest share of positive cases and does. But the Upper Keys areas of Key Largo and Tavernier have a relatively high percentage of cases compared to other islands.

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We hear it every day. “Social distancing is working. We’re flattening the curve!”

We’ve been keeping a spreadsheet with all the Monroe County coronavirus case and testing data that the Florida Department of Health provides each day. It’s now been 26 days since the first COVID-19 case was officially reported in the Keys (on March 20th). We were curious to see what those numbers would look like when we plugged them into graphs. What does “our curve” look like?  Is it indeed flattening as a result of all our efforts at social distancing?

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