Florida Reports Over 15,000 COVID-19 Cases In Single-Day Record

( Reuters) – Florida reported a record boost of more than 15,000 brand-new cases of COVID-19 in 24 hours on Sunday, as the Trump administration renewed its push for schools to resume and anti-mask demonstrations were prepared in Michigan and Missouri.

If Florida were a country, it would rank fourth in the world for the most brand-new cases in a day behind the United States, Brazil and India, according to a Reuters analysis.

Florida’s everyday increases in cases have currently gone beyond the greatest day-to-day tally reported by any European nation throughout the height of the pandemic there. It has likewise broken New York state’s record of 12,847 brand-new cases on April 10 when it was the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak.

The most recent increase was reported a day after Walt Disney World in Orlando resumed with a limited number of guests who were welcomed with a host of safety measures, including masks and temperature level checks.

Anti-mask activists in several states, including Florida and Michigan, have organized demonstrations versus regional requireds, arguing that the steps infringe upon individual freedom.

Coronavirus infections are rising in about 40 states, according to a Reuters analysis of cases for the previous 2 weeks compared to the previous 2 weeks. Nationally, the United States has broken international records by signing up about 60,000 new cases a day for the last 4 days in a row, according to a Reuters tally. Hospitalizations and favorable test rates are also rising in Arizona, California, Florida and Texas.

Dealing with a battered economy as he seeks re-election in November, President Donald Trump has actually pressured states to resume shuttered services and schools.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos stated on Sunday that her department did not have its own safe resuming plans to promote, and each school district and state must devise their own strategies based on their regional coronavirus infection rates.

TRUMP PUTS ON MASK

Health authorities have actually pleaded with the public to use masks to restrict the spread of the infection, but the problem has become politically divisive in the United States unlike lots of other countries that have seen far lower rates of infection and death.

Seven months into the pandemic, Trump used a mask for the very first time in public when he checked out a Washington D.C.-area military medical center on Saturday. He had actually formerly refused to wear a mask in public or ask Americans to wear face coverings, saying it was a personal option.

Lots of Americans still decline to wear a mask, which health experts state assistance stop transmission of the virus that has killed more than 134,000 Americans.

Anti-mask activists organized a demonstration on Saturday at a grilled cheese dining establishment and bar in Windermere, Florida, which remains in Orange County about 12 miles (19 km) from Walt Disney World.

The restaurant, 33 & Melt, has become a centerpiece of tension after owner Carrie Hudson stated she was not requiring consumers to use masks. County authorities have mandated making use of masks in public considering that June 20.

Throughout Saturday’s protest, no clients used face coverings inside the restaurant. Agents from the state’s Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco showed up throughout the rally and served Hudson with a warning, according to a video.

” This is an infection that is very well contained,” said one of the demonstrators, anti-mask activist Tara Hill. “Everybody is responsible for their own health care choices … We want our choices respected too.”

In addition to a record 15,000 new cases on Sunday, more than 4 dozen medical facilities in Florida reported that their extensive care units are complete due to a surge in COVID-19 patients.

Hundreds were anticipated to attend a demonstration at the Michigan state capitol on Sunday afternoon, according to a Facebook event, to protest against Guv Gretchen Whitmer’s order that everybody must use a mask in public, except when outdoors and able to preserve social range.

Protesters were likewise planning to collect outdoors town hall in Springfield, Missouri on Monday, where the city council was because of vote on a mask mandate in action to increasing cases and a more than fourfold boost in Greene County’s COVID-19 hospitalizations in the last month.

( Reporting by Gabriella Borters in New York and Octavio Jones in Windermere, Florida; Writing by Lisa Shumaker; Modifying by Daniel Wallis)