California and Florida reported a record number of daily coronavirus deaths on Thursday, as the total number of infections in the US exceeded 4 million.
California’s 157 deaths Wednesday followed a week of coronavirus records in the state that was once considered a COVID success story.
Governor Gavin newsom
Gavin Newsom California, Florida report record number of daily deaths California eighth death row inmate dies of suspected coronavirus complications California goes to New York for most coronavirus cases MORE (D) said Wednesday that 12,807 new coronavirus infections had been reported statewide in 24 hours, a record.
Thursday brought another day of more than 12,000 new infections reported, although the daily figures reported on Thursday were slightly less than on Wednesday.
The state’s 14-day positive testing rate has increased slightly, and is now 7.6 percent. It is a far cry from the positivity rate of nearly 50 percent in early April, but it is still above the lowest rate of around 4 percent at the end of the same month.
Cases began to escalate after Newsom lifted the stay-at-home order and allowed individual state counties to reopen businesses in May. In many cases, according to experts, that flexibility probably allowed local governments to rush and reopen before they were ready.
Newsom has re-imposed some of the restrictions, and has closed all nonessential interior businesses in most of the state. Still, it will be weeks before that impact is seen in cases, hospitalizations, and deaths.
Meanwhile, the Governor of Florida Ron DeSantis
Ronald Dion DeSantis California, Florida Report Record Number of Daily Deaths DeSantis Approval of Coronavirus Subsidence Management: Survey Poll: Biden leads Trump by 6 points in Florida MORE (R) Thursday continued to downplay the severity of the state’s COVID-19 outbreak, even as health officials reported a record 173 new deaths among Florida residents.
The 173 new COVID-19 deaths increased the state’s cumulative total to 5,518. In the past seven days, Florida has confirmed just under 1,000 COVID-19-related resident deaths.
DeSantis said Thursday that he would not consider imposing a mask requirement statewide, even though many cities, towns and counties across the state have done so.
During a press conference, he said the record number of deaths is misleading, since not all of them occurred in the last 24 hours. Deaths are reported when confirmed.
“When the state reports that, that does not mean that those deaths occurred last night,” DeSantis said.
He also said the state is seeing numbers moving in the right direction, claiming that hospitals have the capacity to deal with the increasing number of infected people, and the state’s positivity rate has stabilized.
According to Johns Hopkins University figures, the state’s seven-day positivity rate has essentially stalled at 18.6 percent.
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