On Sunday, the highest single-day total of confirmed coronavirus cases was broken. Florida made a national record by reporting the highest single-day total by adding more than 15,000 cases as its average daily number.
The death toll for Florida is also gradually rising, which is a cause for alarm for the country’s health officials.
According to the state department of health statistics, the number of coronavirus cases stands at 269,811. Among these cases, 15,299 have tested positive while 45 have died. Previously California has had the daily highest record for positive cases. The number of cases California observed was 11,694 while New York observed around 11,571 cases.
This grim news has come just in time as Florida broke records after reports showed 514 fatalities with an average of 73 deaths per day. Three weeks ago however the state had observed fewer deaths, the average being around 30 deaths a day. Since the beginning of the pandemic, it is important to note that about 4,346 people have died due to coronavirus in Florida alone.
Across the US by Sunday alone, there have been more than 3.2m total cases of coronavirus. According to Johns Hopkins University tracker, the numbers of deaths are 135,066 in total.
Another hotspot for coronavirus is Arizona, which is also currently battling a serious heatwave that can prove dangerous. As for coronavirus, the reports from Arizona show that there are 86 deaths and 2,537 new cases for the novel virus.
Reports show that in Arizona three teachers who were in a classroom together, all contracted the lethal coronavirus. They were infected despite maintaining social distancing precautions and wearing both masks and gloves. Since then one of the three has passed away.
In the state of California, the death toll is 7,000 and still climbing as the rate of infection continues to rise to its highest point since April.
Meanwhile, in Texas, the total number of coronavirus cases has reached 258,000 by Saturday alone. There have also been 3,192 reported deaths. Since the recent trend of the ‘COVID party’ began, a 30-year-old man has since died after attending one thinking the virus was a hoax.
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According to an analysis by the Reuters, if Florida had been a country it would come fourth in the world for having the most cases, leaving it only a day behind the US, India, and Brazil.
The state has since then doubled testing and has gone from 25,000 daily to about 50,000. The percentage of people who have tested positive has risen also. A month ago the daily average percentage for people testing positive was less than 5%. Over the previous week, however, the daily average rose higher than 19%.
Dr. Cindy Prins is an epidemiologist at the University of Florida. She says about 143,000 tests took place according to reports from Sunday. She believes testing still needs to be increased a little more. She also insists that local and state health departments should speed up their contact tracing strategies.
Prins also says she has concerns about large crowds that still gather gyms and restaurants as places of large scale transmissions. There have also been reports of illegal clubbing and raves in Florida, which worry her even more.
On Saturday, Walt Disney World decided to reopen the Magic and Animal kingdom in Orlando. This has thus become a concern for health experts who advocate against large gatherings of people at any place. Guests say people wear masks and observe a good social distance between each other, even videos show parks to be nearly empty.
