Florida Department of Health coronavirus dashboard recently reached 100,217 confirmed cases after 2,926 cases were added, marking the fifth-highest one-day total since the state began tracking new cases.
However, health officials believe that the true number is higher is in fact higher as they acknowledge that not everyone who has the coronavirus can be tested.
The recent surge prompts people to get tested, and health officials estimates that the number will continue to rise in the coming days.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and the Department of Health renewed their campaign to get people to wear masks in public, avoid gatherings larger than 50 people, and continue to observe social distancing.
The Governor held a news conference over the weekend to assure the public that he will not issue a statewide mandate on the use of facemasks, but reiterates the importance of following health guidelines.
“We recommend everyone follow CDC guidance. I’ve not preempted local. You have to enforce that. State-wide penalties would be problematic. You have to trust people to make good decisions and not mandate this and mandate that,” the governor said.
DeSantis also said that recent infections have skewed younger, with more people in their 20s and 30s testing positive.
Florida has been testing and reporting more, following the recommendation of the dean of the University of South Florida College of Medicine.
A total of 1,617,487 people were tested since Monday, wherein 5,972 residents were confirmed positive by the Department of Health and 92,075 residents were confirmed positive were tested by private labs.
The state’s latest release showed that the average daily percentage of people who tested positive for the first time was 9.38 for June 14-20, a dramatic increase from 4.86 for June 7-13.
According to model projections by the PolicyLab at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Florida “has all the makings of the next large epicenter.”