The Florida coronavirus surge is being blamed for a lack of leadership after the state reported 12,523 new cases of the coronavirus on Saturday.
This was the fifth consecutive day the Florida recorded more than 10,000 cases, according to its health department.
Florida had 11,865 additional coronavirus cases on average over the past seven days, a 28.85% increase compared with a week ago, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
The Florida Department of Health reported that there are more than 350,047 coronavirus cases in the state, with a death toll of 4,982 people.
Florida has recorded over 10,000 new cases per day since Tuesday. Of the past ten days, Florida had more than 10,000 new cases per day on nine of those days, according to the state’s health department. The figures showed a record increase of 15,244 new cases on July 11.
A rise in hospitalizations was recorded in recent weeks as well. As of Sunday, 49 hospitals were already scarce of available adult intensive care units, according to Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration.
“The residents here are terrified and I’m terrified, for the first time in my career because there’s a lack of leadership,” Florida Rep. Donna Shalala, a Democrat who’s district lies within Miami-Dade County said on ABC’s “This Week.” “It’s terrible. We have community spread, which means the virus is out of control.”
Shalala emphasized that the lack of both federal and state leadership from Gov. Ron DeSantis has affected how local officials manage the virus. She noted that the state did not rest long enough to “starve the virus” and that the governor refused to implement a statewide mask order.
“In my district, it’s low-income minorities: Hispanics and African-Americans,” she said, “who are forced to go back to work for economic reasons and because their employers demanded they go back to work.”
According to Shalala, the people in her district reside in multi-generational households, so those who get ill often transmit it to their older family members.
“There is more testing now than there was then so that may account for some of this but I think we’re seeing a true increase in cases in older adults, which makes sense given the overall large increase in cases,” Cindy Prins, an epidemiologist at the University of Florida, said during an interview with CNBC last week.
Shalala noted the steady rise of Covid-19 hospitalizations, especially in her South Florida district. She added that some hospitals are overwhelmed and patients must be concerned about getting quality care in the current environment if they become ill and must stay in the hospital.
Republican Sen. Marco Rubio explained earlier this week that shortages of remdesivir, the drug authorized in the US to for coronavirus treatment, being reported in Florida’s hospitals are caused by a “bad disconnect” with the White House about his state’s needs.
The Department of Health and Human Services secured a deal with drugmaker Gilead Sciences to ensure the availability of the drug. However, amid the coronavirus surge, hospitals could not completely meet demand.
“We need to close down in Florida,” Shalala said. “Our economy will not come back until we meet this virus at its head and bring it down.”
