Florida broke a record Thursday for new coronavirus cases in one day.
The state’s health department announced 1,698 new cases of the respiratory illness, surpassing the previous record of 1,419 set last Thursday.
Florida has had more than 1,000 new COVID-19 infections in 8 out of the past 9 days even as the state eases restrictions and returns to a sense of normalcy. The state is now approaching 70,000 total confirmed cases and at least 2,847 deaths since the pandemic began.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis attributed the record numbers to increased testing availability across the state rather than to increased spread because of the phased reopening of the state.
“As you’re testing more, you’re going to find more cases, and most of the cases are subclinical cases,” DeSantis said, according to Local 10. “And we expected that from the beginning. We’re doing 30,000-plus tests a day in terms of results on average.
“As people have been getting back to work, I think employers have told folks you should get tested, so we’re starting to see at our test sites a much younger demographic,” he added.
Florida was one of the last large states to shut down during the coronavirus pandemic, and the stay-home-order for the state was lifted in early May.
