Florida, USA sets one-day record of new COVID-19 cases, more than most countries

Florida reported a record increase of more than 15,000 new cases of COVID-19 in 24 hours Sunday, as the Trump administration renewed efforts to reopen schools and anti-mask demonstrations were scheduled in Michigan and Missouri .

If Florida were a country, it would rank fourth in the world for the largest number of new cases in a day behind the United States, Brazil and India, according to Reuters analysis.

The daily increase in cases in Florida has already exceeded the highest daily count reported by a European country at the height of the pandemic. He also broke the New York State record with 12,847 new cases on April 10, when he was the epicenter of the American epidemic.

The latest spike was reported the day after Walt Disney World reopened in Orlando with a limited number of guests who were greeted with a host of safety measures, including masks and temperature controls.

Anti-masked activists from several states, including Florida and Michigan, held demonstrations against local warrants, arguing that the measures violated individual liberty.

Coronavirus infections are increasing in about 40 states, according to a Reuters analysis of cases from the past two weeks compared to the previous two weeks. Nationally, the United States has broken world records by recording around 60,000 new cases a day in the past four consecutive days, according to a Reuters count. Hospitalizations and positive test rates are also increasing in Arizona, California, Florida and Texas.

Florida reported a record number of tests, with nearly 143,000 results announced on Sunday, compared to an average of 68,000 for the previous seven days.

DONALD TRUMP DONATION MASK

Faced with a struggling economy as he seeks re-election in November, President Donald Trump has lobbied states to reopen closed businesses and schools.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said on Sunday that her department did not have its own plans to safely reopen to promote, and that each school district and each state should develop its own plans based on their rates of local coronavirus infection.

Health officials have begged the public to wear masks to limit the spread of the virus, but the problem has become politically contentious in the United States unlike many other countries that have experienced much higher rates of infection and death weak.

Seven months after the pandemic began, Trump wore a mask for the first time in public when he visited a military medical center in the Washington DC area on Saturday. He had previously refused to wear a mask in public or asked the Americans to wear face covers, saying it was a personal choice.

Many Americans still refuse to wear a mask, which, according to health experts, helps stop the transmission of the virus that has killed more than 134,000 Americans.

Anti-mask activists held a demonstration on Saturday at a grilled cheese bar and restaurant in Windermere, Florida, Orange County, about 12 miles from Walt Disney World.

The restaurant, 33 & Melt, has become a hotbed after owner Carrie Hudson said she doesn’t require customers to wear masks. County officials have made it mandatory to use masks in public since June 20.

During the demonstration on Saturday, no customer wore face covers inside the restaurant. Officers from the state’s alcohol and tobacco division arrived during the rally and alerted Hudson, according to a video.

“It is a very well contained virus,” said one of the protesters, anti-mask activist Tara Hill. “Everyone is responsible for their own health care decisions … We want our choices to be respected too.”

In addition to the record number of 15,000 new cases on Sunday, more than four dozen hospitals in Florida reported that their intensive care units were full due to an increase in the number of COVID-19 patients.

Hundreds of people were to attend a demonstration in the state capital of Michigan on Sunday afternoon, according to a Facebook event, to protest against Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s order that everyone must wear a mask in public except when he is outside and able to maintain social distance.

Protesters also planned to meet Monday outside of Springfield, Missouri town hall, where city council was to vote on a mask warrant in response to the increase in cases and one more increase four times from COVID-19 hospitalizations in Greene County in the past month. .

(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)