FLORIDA BREAKS ALL RECORDS

Reports 15,299 new cases, biggest in any US state since the beginning of corona pandemic

Florida has shattered the national record for the largest single-day increase in positive coronavirus cases in any state since the beginning of the pandemic, adding more than 15,000 cases as its daily average death toll continued to also rise.

According to state Department of Health statistics, 15,299 people tested positive, for a total of 269,811 cases, and 45 deaths were recorded on Sunday.

California had the previous record of daily positive cases - 11,694, set on Wednesday. New York had 11,571 on April 15.

The numbers come at the end of a grim, recordbreaking week as Florida reported 514 fatalities - an average of 73 per day. Three weeks ago, the state was averaging 30 deaths per day. Since the pandemic began in March, 4,346 people have died in Florida of COVID19, the state says.

Testing has doubled over the last month, going from about 25,000 tests per day to almost 50,000, but the percentage of people testing positive has risen even more dramatically. A month ago, fewer than 5 per cent of tests came up positive on a daily average. Over the past week, the daily average exceeded 19 per cent.

About 10.7 per cent of Saturday's 143,000 tests came up positive, with an average age of 38. "I still think we need to increase our testing a little bit more," said University of Florida epidemiologist Dr. Cindy Prins, adding that the state and local health departments should ramp up their contact tracing.

Prins said that she's still concerned about large crowds, gyms and some restaurants as being places of mass transmission. Reports of illegal clubs and raves in South Florida is also a worry, she said.

"I really do think we could control this, and it's the human element that is so critical. It should be an effort of our country. We should be pulling together when we're in a crisis, and we're definitely not doing it," she said. "I know people want to live their lives. There have been a lot of other times, people have made those sacrifices in order to benefit our society. It's almost like a war effort. That's what we need right now."