Florida Reports Lowest Single-Day Increase in Coronavirus Cases Since June

Florida reported the lowest single-day increase in cases of the novel coronavirus since June, reporting 4,752 additional cases on Monday.

The Sunshine State may be moving well past its peak of the Chinese coronavirus on the back of the latest numbers — the lowest single-day increase since June. Monday’s numbers followed the 7,104 positive cases reported on Sunday, which at the time represented the lowest single-day increase in nearly a month.

The state reported 73 related fatalities on Monday, bringing the statewide death toll to 7,157.

Overall, the state has reported 491,884 total cases, bringing the mortality rate to 1.47 percent. There have been 27,366 recorded hospitalizations statewide, although hospital capacity is increasing statewide, jumping from 21 percent nearly two weeks ago to over 25 percent on Monday.

ICU bed availability has also increased, jumping from 15.78 percent on July 23 to 19.66 percent on Monday, according to data from the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration.

On Monday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) questioned Dr. Anthony Fauci over his past criticisms of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and his handling of the pandemic.

“FL and NY have an identical number of per capita coronavirus infections but FL has 5X less per capita deaths,” Paul pointed out.

“Will Dr. Fauci be praising @GovRonDeSantis’ response to the pandemic?  Will he point out that @NYGovCuomo’s response allowed a fivefold greater per capita death rate?” he asked:

FL and NY have an identical number of per capita coronavirus infections but FL has 5X less per capita deaths. Will Dr. Fauci be praising @GovRonDeSantis’ response to the pandemic? Will he point out that @NYGovCuomo’s response allowed a fivefold greater per capita death rate?

— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) August 3, 2020

Dr. Anthony Fauci criticized Florida’s response during last month’s appearance on FiveThirtyEight’s “PODCAST-19.”

“Despite the guidelines and the recommendations to open up carefully and prudently, some states skipped over those and just opened up too quickly,” the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said. “Certainly Florida … I think jumped over a couple of checkpoints.”