Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says ‘there’s no need to be fearful’ as COVID-19 cases are increasing across the state.
“Really, I mean, it’s a team effort here in Florida. We’ve got all hands-on deck and I think the people of Florida are responding positively and I think they’re responding in ways. But there’s no need to be fearful. Just focus on the facts. We understand. We’ve got to do as a state and let’s… let’s get it done,” DeSantis said during a press conference Monday.
The governor’s comments came shortly after Miami Mayor Carlos Gimenez issued an emergency order closing restaurants and certain other indoor places, including gyms and vacation rentals, seven weeks after they were allowed to reopen.
Florida, recorded an all-time high of 11,400 cases Saturday and has seen its positive test rate over the past two weeks reach more than 18%.
The state has been hit especially hard, along with other Sunbelt states such as Arizona, California and Texas.
Part of the reason for the spike is more people are being tested: 45,000 a day, about double the figure of a month ago.
“There are and have been way more infections than documented cases. And so, if you see 5000 cases, 10000 just understand that is not the sum total of the people that have been infected. We were doing 80, 000 tests a day in March or April. Those numbers would have been dramatically higher in terms of case numbers,” DeSantis said.
But the increased testing only partly explains the spike as the positivity rate for tests for the past week is now more than 18%, four times higher than a month ago when the weekly average stood at 4.6%.
A month ago, the state was averaging about 1,500 new coronavirus cases a day.
Despite high numbers, DeSantis said theme parks don’t need to be closed and in fact praised them for their safety measures.
“The theme parks have been doing great. I mean, Universal, if you look at what they’re doing and that’s I think the lesson is you can do. We have to have society function. You can have society function in a way that keeps people safe. And when you have all the different procedures that they have in place, people are going to be it’s a safe environment. Disney, I have no doubt it’s gonna be a safe environment,” he said.
Since the outbreak began, 30 Floridians have died a day from COVID-19 — and that number has been rising, averaging 43 a day over the last two weeks.
Using 2018 Florida Health Department statistics, the last year available, coronavirus’ daily death toll would rank sixth behind heart disease (128 deaths a day), cancer (123), stroke (36), accidental injury (34) and chronic lung disease (33).
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