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Coronavirus Cases Rose By 948% In Florida After Governor Reopened State

Coronavirus Cases Rose By 948% In Florida After Governor Reopened State

There was 'widespread noncompliance' with social distancing rules when the state was allowed to reopen

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie

Data gathered from daily press briefings in Florida show there was a near 948 percent increase in the number of coronavirus cases after the governor reopened the state.

In June, Governor Ron DeSantis kicked into gear Phase Two of the state's reopening process, which allowed bars and pubs to have 50 percent capacity inside and full capacity outside. At that point, the state had recorded 58,764 cases of coronavirus.

PA

In the three months since that point, the state has recorded 615,806 cases. That's one hell of a spike.

It took just three weeks after 5 June for the state's total number of cases since the pandemic began to double to 122,960 cases. At that point, Governor DeSantis ordered bars to close on 26 June, however it appears the damage had been done.

Unsurprisingly, when the bars and restaurants were allowed to reopen, there were reports of 'widespread noncompliance' in regards to social distancing rules.

It wasn't until 15 July that Florida recorded its highest single-day increase, with 15,300 people testing positive for Covid-19. That was in a single day.

During that time, there was also a massive spike in the number of deaths and people needing treatment in hospital.

PA

When the state was reopened, Florida had recorded 2,566 deaths and 10,525 hospitalisations. Last week when the latest figures were reported, Florida had lost 11,099 people to the coronavirus and 38,029 people had been treated in area hospitals.

Since the July peak, the numbers have slowly tapered off and the state has recorded its lowest numbers since June. There were 1,885 new cases of the pandemic recorded and reported on 31 August.

The US continues to show the highest rate of coronavirus infections, recording 6.1 million cases of the virus out of the world's 25.3m.

One graph shows cases are ever so slowly starting to level out, however the angle of the increase indicate the country isn't anywhere close to ending its first wave of infections.

Behind America is Brazil at 3.9m and India is at 3.69m, with the latter recording yesterday the highest single-day increase for a country anywhere in the world since the pandemic began. India notched 78,761 new cases in a single day but still has plans to open up parts of the country.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: News, US News