After another 10,000 Floridians tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the total number of cases in Florida surpassed 200,000 on Sunday. It took three months for the state to reach 100,000 cases, but less than two weeks to double that mark. Coronavirus cases are spiking across the South and West after many states pushed for reopening in May. Florida has seen about 20% of all new cases in the U.S. recently.
Sunday’s coronavirus update from the Florida Department of Health showed 10,059 new cases in the Sunshine State, marking the third-highest single day total, behind Thursday and Saturday, reports the Miami Herald. It brings the state’s coronavirus case total to 200,111 since the pandemic started in early March. There has been an increase in testing, but also an increase in the positive test rate. During the last full week of June, the positive rest rate was 9.94%. In the past week, that jumped to 14.47%. There were 29 new deaths from coronavirus complications Sunday, bringing the death toll to 3,832.
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The number of deaths in the state has been going down, but Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams cautioned that a better picture of the death toll during the spike might not be clear for another two weeks, reports CNBC. The median age for patients testing positive in Florida has been 35 as of Saturday.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ response to the coronavirus pandemic has been widely criticized, and he has still refused to order a statewide mask mandate. The state’s reopening plan has been put on hold though. Last week, Florida banned drinking at bars again and DeSantis told reporters he “never anticipated” continuing reopening at this stage. “We are where we are. I didn’t say we were going to go on to the next phase,” DeSantis, a Republican, said, reports CNBC.
DeSantis was also criticized for not releasing current hospitalization numbers for every county. This will change starting next week. Some counties have been reporting hospitalization, like Mimia-Dade County, which reported 1,538 COVID-19 patients admitted to hospitals. Miami-Dade and other populous Florida counties have started their own face mask requirements and issued other ordinances to slow the speed of the coronavirus. Miami-Dade also started an overnight curfew from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. indefinitely and some businesses that opened in just last month will be closed again.
Nationally, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases sits at 2.85 million since the pandemic began, according to Johns Hopkins University. Over 129,000 Americans have died, while 894,325 have recovered. During testimony in Washington last week, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top expert on infectious diseases, predicted there could be 100,000 coronavirus cases a day nationwide if the outbreaks in the South and West are not contained.
