As cases of the novel coronavirus continue to spread across the country, Florida once again takes the lead. With rallies for the presidential candidates occurring across the state, COVID-19 cases are seeing a significant increase. According to the Florida Department of Health, 23,316 new cases were reported over the last seven days, of which 2,385 were reported on Sunday alone. Additionally, 12 new deaths have been reported as well.
The rise in cases follows the state reopening restaurants and schools. Now in phase three of its reopening, Florida has no limitations on restaurants. The 2,385 cases reported on Sunday bring the state’s overall total to 778,653 cases since March, according to the daily report from the state's department of health. Because of the time it takes to confirm both cases and deaths, the department noted that some may have occurred days or weeks earlier. To date, nearly 6 million people have been tested in Florida for the virus, FOX 35 Orlando reported.
We will fight hard to defeat Donald Trump between now and November 3, but what happens if he refuses to concede? Sign up with Protect the Results, and you will be alerted on any calls to action and mobilizations that will be needed.
Despite this, the Trump administration has yet to take action toward curbing the pandemic. Acknowledging the surge in cases nationwide, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows admitted that the administration cannot stop the spread and is instead working on a vaccine. “We’re not going to control the pandemic. We are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics,” he said on CNN’s State of the Union. While Donald Trump continues to tell his supporters not to fear the virus, Meadows claimed that the “ability to handle this has improved each and every day.”
Yet, it’s impossible to believe the Trump administration, especially with many of its supporters still rallying against safety measures put in place in efforts to stop the virus. Following the lead of Trump’s claims that masks are not necessary to prevent COVID-19, some Florida residents held a mask-burning ceremony in response to extended mask mandates. Mask mandates have been extended in some Florida counties until at least Nov 22.
According to NBC News affiliate WPTV, the group Reopen South Florida called orders to wear a mask “medical tyranny” and protested this mandate Saturday afternoon claiming that the coronavirus death toll has decreased. "What we're seeing right now is a dangerous precedent," Chris Nelson, organizer of the rally said. "If they can tell me that I cannot buy or sell anything without a mask on, they can tell me that I can't buy or sell without proof of a vaccine, that I took a vaccine, and it could go on and on.”
While some officials had expressed that the death toll in Palm Beach County, where the protest took place, has decreased in recent weeks, they also warned against the number of new cases that have occurred. "The mortality is going down, but we don't know what the residual impact is going to be on people, whether the damage to their lungs is going to be long-term," Palm Beach County Vice Mayor Robert Weinroth said Tuesday.
During the rally, protesters marched across the town and ended their event with a mask-burning ceremony. Organizers demanded that Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis take control and block county officials from extending mask mandates. Since the start of the pandemic DeSantis, like Trump, has downplayed the virus. Not only did he take weeks to implement stay-at-home orders, but he lied about testing numbers and the severity of the spread in his state. It wasn’t until photos of Florida residents went viral that DeSantis even took any action.
The coronavirus is real and deadly. Despite Trump’s consistent criticism of masks and his inability to wear them, masks have been researched and proven to significantly stop the spread of COVID-19. Not wearing and burning them will not benefit Florida residents but instead, make them more vulnerable to the deadly consequences of the coronavirus.
As of Oct. 25, at least 59,691 new cases of COVID-19 have been reported nationwide. Additionally, the average number of cases per day in the U.S. has seen an increase of at least 32% in the last week. To date, more than 8.7 million people in the U.S. have been infected by COVID-19 and at least 225,300 have died as a result, according to The New York Times database.