Florida reported more than 5,500 cases of the coronavirus overnight, breaking last weekend’s previous record of 4,049.
Numerous health officials are concerned the Sunshine State will become the nation’s next coronavirus epicenter, as summer gets underway and tourists flock to Florida’s popular warm-weather attractions.
Last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis said the median age was 37 for newly diagnosed coronavirus cases. In the state, 62% of new cases for the week of June 7 were under 45 years old, he said.
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DeSantis said cases are “shifting in a radical direction” toward younger populations. “We’re also seeing that not only are they testing positive because they’re testing more, they’re also testing positive at a higher rate increasingly over the last week,” DeSantis said.
The state is now up to 109,014 confirmed cases and 3,281 deaths associated with COVID-19, according to the latest data released by the health department. There were 43 new coronavirus-related deaths reported Wednesday across the state.
The U.S. on Tuesday reported 34,700 new cases of the virus, according to a tally compiled by Johns Hopkins University that was published Wednesday. There have been only two previous days that the U.S. has reported more cases: April 9 and April 24, when a record 36,400 cases were logged.
New cases in the U.S. have been surging for more than a week after trending down for more than six weeks. While early hot spots such as New York and New Jersey have seen cases steadily decrease, the virus has been hitting the South and West.
Several states on Tuesday set single-day records, including Arizona, California, Mississippi, Nevada and Texas.
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