Coronavirus: Florida reports another 2,610 cases and passes 3,000 deaths from COVID-19
Source: WPLG
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida reported another 2,610 cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday morning and saw its coronavirus death toll rise over 3,000. Those numbers come one day after the state set a record with 2,783 new cases.
Florida is now up to 82,719 total cases and 3,018 deaths associated with COVID-19, according to the latest data released by the health department.
There were 25 new coronavirus-related deaths reported Wednesday morning across the state, including three in Miami-Dade County, two in Broward and six in Palm Beach County.
Of the people tested for the first time Tuesday in Florida, 10.3% were positive for COVID-19. Over the past two weeks, that positivity rate has fluctuated between around 3-7%.
Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday said the state is “not shutting down” and will push forward with reopening, citing hospital vacancy and chalking up the higher daily case numbers to increased testing.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s chief medical correspondent, opposed that theory in a thread on Twitter, pointing out that states like New York have seen a decrease in cases while increasing testing. Florida’s testing “is roughly holding steady and yet cases are climbing,” he wrote.
“This may seem counter intuitive, but if you are doing enough testing, cases should start to go down because you are finding people early before they spread it,” Gupta added.
In the past day, Miami-Dade County’s confirmed cases increased by 532 to 23,273. The county now has 850 deaths, the highest total in the state.
Broward’s cases increased by 314 to 9,812. The county’s death toll is now at 360.
Palm Beach County’s cases increased by 210 to 9,472, with the death toll at 444.
Monroe County now has 137 cases (an increase of six overnight) and four confirmed deaths.
Florida has confirmed at least 12,389 coronavirus-related hospitalizations since the start of the outbreak.
Since June 3, the state has reported more than 1,000 new cases each day except one.
DeSantis in a news conference Tuesday went into detail about the state’s testing, which he said was among the best in the country. He also highlighted again the number of cases attributed to farmworkers, construction workers and other hotspots.
Statewide, Florida reports having completed over 1.4 million tests for COVID-19, with 5.6% coming back positive.
Florida’s agriculture commissioner Nikki Fried slammed DeSantis over the state’s response.
“Today’s record-high new cases makes it clear: Governor DeSantis has lost control of Florida’s COVID-19 response,” Fried, a Democrat, said in a statement of the Republican governor. “His policies are simply not working, and he’s recklessly reopening Florida despite the data screaming for caution. Refusing to acknowledge the alarming patterns in cases, hospitalizations, and positivity is not only arrogant, but will cost lives, public health, and our economy.
“To our citizens, I implore you to wear masks and continue social distancing – and just because a place is open, doesn’t mean it’s safe to go there. To our local governments, please encourage your residents to stay home, mask up, and socially distance. If the Governor is unwilling to make the right decisions, then they must be made in our cities, our states, and our homes.”
Dr. Bindu Mayi, a professor of microbiology and infectious diseases expert from Nova Southeastern University’s school of medicine, also said this week that there’s more to the rise in numbers than just increased testing.
“We are seeing more cases because we are doing more testing, but that said, we are seeing more cases also because we are seeing the easing of the lockdown measures which we had,” Mayi told Local 10 News. “We should still be taking this very seriously. The more I read about this virus, the more I realize what a horrible virus it is.”
Mayi and other medical experts say that it’s still within our power to prevent a dreaded second wave of the virus.
Local leaders are closely watching the numbers and, while they haven’t gone as far as to bring back stay-at-home orders, they’re reminding residents to remain vigilant in following the health guidelines. Some bars and restaurants in the state have closed again because workers or patrons have tested positive for COVID-19.
“It does concern me to see these numbers going up, particularly when I’m looking at hospitalizations, as they go up,” Dr. Aileen Marty, an infectious disease expert from Florida International University, told Local 10 over the weekend.
“We want to have the economy open, but we can only do that if we’re all recognizing that there is this incredibly dangerous virus,” she added.
Fears have also arisen about the possibility of greater coronavirus spread in areas where large protests have been held, including South Florida.
In the meantime, Florida’s numbers are coming under increased scrutiny after Rebekah Jones, a former data scientist who was fired by the state, started her own coronavirus dashboard that reflects different totals.
The United States has passed 2.1 million confirmed cases, with over 116,000 deaths from COVID-19, the highest numbers in the world. Over 583,000 Americans have been deemed recovered, according to data compiled from various sources by Johns Hopkins University.
Worldwide, the number of COVID-19 cases reported has surpassed 8.2 million. There have been more than 444,000 deaths worldwide attributed to the pandemic, with over 3.9 million being declared recovered.
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Republished by the Law Office of Scott A. Ferris, P.A.