Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pledged increase inspections of businesses such as bars, restaurants and hair salons as the state reported more than 4,000 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday.
June 21 (UPI) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has announced that he plans to more closely monitor businesses not following coronavirus guidelines as the state has experienced a surge of new cases.
The state reported 3,494 additionalcases during a 24-hour period ending Saturday night as total cases in the state rose more than 49 percent in the past two weeks to 97,291, the seventh most in the United States. The record was 4,049 Saturday. Florida has also reported a total of 3,161 deaths, the ninth highest death toll in the nation, including an additional 17 on Sunday after a rise of 40 Saturday.
The United States has reported a total of 2,260,972 cases of COVID-19 and 119,762 deaths, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.
DeSantis also said the median age in new COVID-19 cases has begun to show a trend of infections among people between the ages of 25 and 30.
“Our cases are shifting in a radical direction younger,” DeSantis said Saturday. “Much of the spread is in the younger populations and we are going to deal with that. Even hospital admissions have skewed younger and less acuity.”
The median age for cases is down to 44. In addition, the overall positive test rate has risen to 9.2 percent from 5.2 percent last week as testing has become more widespread without criteria on who can be tested.
