Florida overtook New York in confirmed coronavirus cases on Saturday, with state figures soaring to more than 414,000. Florida now has the second-highest number of cases in the country, behind only California.
With 12,180 additional new infections, Florida reported a total of 414,511 confirmed cases on Saturday, beating New York. California has more than 440,000 confirmed cases in total, according to Johns Hopkins University. New York, once a pandemic hot spot, reported that another 750 people tested positive for the virus on Friday, bringing the state total to 411,200 confirmed cases. .
This week, Florida also marked a grim milestone when it reported 173 deaths, a new single-day record. Many intensive care units (ICUs) are at or near capacity throughout the state.
Municipalities across the state have imposed curfews in an effort to regulate large gatherings, which have increased since the reopening began several months ago. Many cities are also investing their reopening efforts.
On Thursday, President Trump announced that he is cancelled Jacksonville’s part of the Republican National Convention next month, citing Florida’s coronavirus crisis. However, the president has expressed his desire to reopen schools, even in the worst affected states.
In a interview with “Face the Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan on Friday, Surgeon General Jerome Adams recommended that schools reopen with COVID-19 positivity rates of less than 10%. Currently, at least twelve states have positivity rates above 10%, including critical points such as Texas, Arizona, and Florida.
Some teachers in Florida are pushing back contrary to a mandate requiring schools to reopen in the fall to receive in-person instruction. Governor Ron Desantis seemed to relax his stance on reopening this week and said, “If a school district needs to delay the school year by a few weeks, in order for everything to be in good shape, it has to.”
While new daily cases in Florida remain high, the number of people hospitalized in New York with coronavirus continues to decline to the lowest levels since the pandemic began. On Saturday, Governor Andrew Cuomo said 646 people were hospitalized in the state on Friday, a new low since March 16.
Cuomo also announced that 149 COVID-19 patients are in ICUs across the state, also a new low since March 16.
The latest data brings the total number of confirmed cases in the US to more than 4,150,000. More than a million of those cases were reported in approximately the past two weeks.
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