For the third time in four days, Florida broke its record for number of new cases of COVID-19 in a day, with the Florida Department of Health reporting nearly 10,000 new cases on Saturday.
Florida now has 132,545 total cases of the virus, sixth-most in the country.
The alarming surge in cases this week forced Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Friday to order that all stand-alone bars stop serving alcohol in an attempt to slow the roll of the disease.
According to the state health department, 78,345 Floridians were tested for coronavirus on Friday, a new record. Conservative lawmakers, including President Trump, have pointed towards increased testing as the culprit behind the rising number of cases; however, the percentage of positive tests, a better metric to use when trying to see if the virus is spreading, suggests that increased testing isn’t the only cause.
On June 13, Florida’s percentage of positive tests was 4.39 percent. By Tuesday, it had ballooned to 15.84 percent and it is currently at 12.82 percent, nearly three times higher than it was two weeks ago.
DeSantis on Friday also said that the state was starting to see younger adults begin to be more affected by the virus.
“What we’ve seen, particularly over the last week, is a real explosion in new cases among our younger demographics,” he said. “When we started this in March, the median age of people who tested positive was – I think – 65. As the testing ramped up, that went into the 50s. But it was pretty much in the 50s for most of the time and then just recently has really plunged.”
The median age of new cases on Friday was 34, by comparison.
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