April 1, 2020
MSN.com – “Longtime University of Miami healthcare employee dies from coronavirus.”
“Second man dies from coronavirus after attending Winter Party in Miami Beach.”
“Coronavirus cases in The Villages pass 40, with more than 110 in Lake, Sumter.”
The headlines in Florida leave no doubt that the state has become a coronavirus hotspot.
It happened while traffic was backing up on some highways leading into the state due to checkpoints set up by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) to screen New York and Louisiana drivers for infection.
And the daily reports from the Florida Department of Health drive the fact home:
the number of people testing positive for COVID-19 has accelerated rapidly, nearly doubling in the past four days, with 3,274 new cases, bringing the statewide total to 6,741 as of Tuesday evening.
The state reported 857 people hospitalized and 85 deaths as of Tuesday, with the heaviest concentration of infection in Broward and Miami-Dade counties along the southeast coast and pockets in other areas like Tampa and Orange County, home of Walt Disney World.
On Tuesday alone, 14 deaths were reported in the state, according to the Miami Herald.
Indeed, on the COVID-19 nationwide map maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the state of Florida just turned dark brown, the color signifying more than 5,000 cases.
It’s now in the company of California, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, and New Jersey as of Monday, the cutoff of CDC map data with Louisiana having crossed the 5,000 threshold Tuesday.
Of those states, however, Florida is the only one that is not under a statewide “stay-at-home” order. DeSantis has urged people in Southeast Florida to remain at home and said this week he would issue a “safer at home” order codifying that advice.
On Tuesday, DeSantis said at a news conference that he had no plans to issue a statewide order … Read more.
