Florida Virus Cases Jump as DeSantis Blames ‘Socializing’ Youths
Florida Covid-19 Cases Rise 6.4%, Higher than 7-Day Average
(Bloomberg) --
Florida reported that coronavirus cases rose faster than the one-week average again on Sunday, as Governor Ron DeSantis pointed to young people out with friends as the main cause for accelerating infection rates.
“It’s basically socializing,” DeSantis said at a Pensacola news conference, noting reopening the economy wasn’t the reason. “Most of this is not because of people going to work, it’s because they’re being social.”
The 24-to-34 age group has “by far” been the leading group pushing up the daily numbers, he said.
The state reported a total of 141,075 Covid-19 cases as of Sunday, a jump of 6.4% from a day earlier, compared with an average increase of 5.1% in the previous seven days. New cases declined to 8,530 from a record 9,585 on Saturday.
Deaths among Florida residents reached 3,419, an increase of 0.9%, according to the report, which includes data through Saturday. Cumulative hospitalizations of Florida residents rose 0.8% to 14,244.
Florida along with Texas, Arizona and California are reporting sharp increases in cases, prompting officials to slow business reopenings. Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez on Friday closed popular beaches for this week’s Independence Day holiday.
The five-day suspension starting July 3 would be extended “if conditions do not improve,” Gimenez said.
Miami-Dade, the state’s most populous county, reported that 1,082 patients with Covid-19 were admitted to hospitals as of Sunday, an increase of 57 from the revised 1,025 on Saturday.
The number of Covid-19 patients in intensive-care unit beds rose to 224 from a revised 205, according to the county report. The number of the patients on ventilators fell to 84 from 87 a day earlier. The county has 2,947 acute-care beds and 459 ICU beds available.
The county revised the Saturday totals to reflect admissions of 108 patients at two facilities excluded from the initial report.
The median age of cases among Florida residents rose to 36, from 34 the previous day. The new rate of people testing positive for the first time was 12.4% on Saturday, compared with 12.7% on Friday.
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