Gov. Ron DeSantis took to the podium Tuesday to assuage concerns over the rising daily number of new COVID-19 cases. But even his preferred metrics for tracking the state’s progress amid reopening are indicating the virus is on the rise again.
According to the latest report from state health officials, 12.5% of tests received Tuesday came back positive. Even the subset of that metric the Governor highlighted, the percentage among people who weren’t already known positives, is on the rise.
For the first time since the days after the state began reporting the subset percentage in late April, the rate of new cases was back above 10% Tuesday. That was a sharp and possibly outlying jump from 7.4% the day before. Still, just 10 days prior, that rate was 2.6%.
In total, the state reported 2,472 new cases Tuesday and 2,610 since Tuesday’s report, raising the total number of diagnoses to 82,719. The state added ten deaths, bringing the total to 3,110 people, including 3,018 Floridians.
During the Tuesday press conference, DeSantis told reporters “we’re not rolling back” the progress made on reopening. Florida is currently on Phase Two of three.
“We’re not shutting down. We’re going to go forward,” DeSantis said. “We’re going to continue to protect the most vulnerable. We’re going to urge, continue to advise particularly our elderly population, to maintain social distancing, avoid crowds.”
Phase Two, which began June 5, included allowing 100% capacity at retailers and mass gatherings of 50 or less. It also allowed the reopening of bars and movie theaters, but some chains like AMC are still not opening locations.
Despite the rash of new cases, the Governor has attributed the increase to rising testing availability, as now 1.5 million people have been tested. The state and public and private partners have opened testing facilities across the hardest-hit parts of the state that are available to anyone, regardless of age or symptoms, a stark change from the early days of the pandemic.
With testing reaching an average of 30,000 people per day, that exceeds the amount of testing conducted during the virus’ April peak, when about 1,300 tested positive.
“Back in April, I made the point that as you test more, you will see more cases because you’re identifying those sub-clinical cases that just would not have been tested previously,” DeSantis said. “And I said you could see 2,000 cases a day in a state this big. That was something that was definitely in the offer for this, and it’s just because of how you’re doing the testing, especially if you’re expanding it as aggressively as I thought that you needed to do.”
But Wednesday’s update cuts a hole in the Governor’s defense. The rising statewide new case percentage over the past week flies in the face of his claim that rising cases were isolated to the prison system and migrant farmers, both groups that spend prolonged periods in close quarters.
Before the uptick in new cases, the Governor and Division of Emergency Management Director Jared Moskowitz said the demand for tests is below what the state can provide. The Department of Health (DOH) was receiving more tests each day in the first half of June than it did in the final days of May, but the share of people testing positive is also going up.
Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, which have not entered Phase Two with the rest of the state, are still the main hot spots for the virus.
DOH shows 23,273 cases for Miami-Dade County, 532 more than on Tuesday. Wednesday’s update also shows 9,812 cases in Broward County, an increase of 314, and 9,472 in Palm Beach County, an increase of 210.
After recently becoming the fourth county to cross 3,000 cases, Hillsborough County became the next to cross 4,000 cases, now with 4,273. Orange County has the fifth-most cases, with 3,584.
This article first appeared at Florida Politics.
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This article appears in Jun 11-17, 2020.
