Staff Reports
State health officials have now reported more than 50,000 COVID-19 cases throughout the pandemic following officials’ latest update.
The Department of Health (DOH) reported 676 newly confirmed cases in a Saturday morning report, raising the total number of confirmed cases to 50,127. That count includes 48,814 Florida residents.
Another 44 people were confirmed dead in the last 24 hours, including one non-resident. Now 2,312 people have died with the novel coronavirus, including 79 non-residents who died in the state.
Another 195 people, including two non-residents, were hospitalized with the disease. Since the start of the pandemic, 9,310 residents and 257 non-residents have been hospitalized with COVID-19.
Since Friday’s report, 172 people in Miami-Dade County tested positive, raising the overall COVID-19 caseload there to 16,694 people. Fifteen people were confirmed dead since that report, raising the county’s death toll to 639.
Broward County registered 69 new cases, raising its total to 6,649 and the death toll rose to 314 after six new people were confirmed dead. Palm Beach County now has 5,140 cases after DOH showed 68 new cases along with four deaths, bringing total deaths to 326.
Six other counties have more than 1,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases including Hillsborough with 1,823, Orange with 1,768, Lee with 1,677, Duval with 1,406, Collier with 1,195 and Pinellas with 1,153.
Gov. Ron DeSantis says week saw an “explosion” in diagnostic testing with 77,940 tests received Tuesday and 53,428 the day after, up from a previous single-day high of 33,663, set Monday. On Thursday, DOH received 27,261 test results.
As of Saturday, 858,112 people have been tested for the disease.
The Governor on Friday lifted restrictions on youth activities, including youth sports and summer camps, effective immediately. Local governments may still make decisions based on their communities but are no longer required to restrict youth activities.
Earlier this week, one of the people entering data on Florida’s coronavirus dashboard was fired in a dispute over what information should be made public. Rebekah Jones, who says she helped design the site, said she was fired because she would not manually change data to support the Governor’s decision to begin the reopening of the state.
Later, DeSantis blasted Jones at a press availability, reinforcing the narrative that she was let go for good reason.
“What she was doing was putting data on the portal which the scientists didn’t believe was valid data,” DeSantis said. “So she didn’t listen to the people who were her superiors. She had many people above her in the chain of command.”
During the interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo on Friday, Jones gave her side of the story regarding the data. She said she was asked to alter presentation because higher-ups “did not like the results.”
“The results didn’t match the report for reopening that had already been written,” she said. “Basically a lot of rural counties for a wide range of reasons, didn’t meet the criteria that the state had outlined in order to qualify for reopening. Whereas some more populated counties did meet that criteria, and I was told that specifically, and this is a quote, ‘We can’t tell Jackson and Franklin counties that they can’t reopen, but Broward and Miami-Dade can’.”
3 comments
TooMuchAlready
May 23, 2020 at 11:55 am
Constant reporting on the number of cases of Covid 19 in Florida, has become a staple of this publication. Anyone with common sense knows that the more tests given, the more cases will be found.
What is the reason for the constant barrage of news on numbers? Obviously, no one needs the numbers on a ten times daily basis. Thus, the answer must be political in nature.
This publication, has quickly become just another piece of the DNC, whose goal it is to frighten Americans, make sure the economy remains tanked in order to defeat Donald Trump in November.
How sad.
Ocean Joe
May 24, 2020 at 9:36 am
What are they writing about in Pravda today? The pandemic isn’t partisan. The lack of a coherent, timely, aggressive national strategy to deal with it and the consequences is now part of our collective history. We had daily counts when our hostages were taken in Iran. We had casualty counts everyday from Vietnam, Iraq and still from Afghanistan. A disease that has taken so many lives has to be taken seriously until it passes. Is there a bigger story going on in Florida or the US today? American lives matter, even the old ones. Keeping us informed and keeping the government in check through scrutiny, and best of all it’s free to readers.
As for bias, do you really think the DNC would want all those stories about Biden’s gaffes or Gillum’s room service?
Optimus Non Prime
May 23, 2020 at 2:36 pm
toomuchaleady, what a JOKE! The party that screams in fear over Caravans, MS13 and illegals is criticizing those who take the deaths of 100k Americans in two months from a virus seriously? Keep clutching your pearls.
Your party’s constant whining and complaining about reopening and not wearing masks is getting tiresome. Preservation of life takes precedence over constitutional rights. Science takes precedence over lies and conpiracy theories which is all the GOP operates on. I applaud the fact this publication takes the reporting of cases seriously and I commend them for it. Come November the democratic party will be putting an end to Trump, Trumpism and your neo confederate death cult. Get ready, the storm is coming.
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