Florida records 12,478 new cases, 89 new deaths
Positive tests pass 350,000 in the state, death toll tops 5K
Florida’s coronavirus cases continued to soar Sunday, with the state reporting another 12,478 cases.
The state and national record for one day is 15,300 cases, reported July 12.
At least 350,047 people have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began, the Florida Department of Health said.
The state recorded 89 new deaths
Sunday
morning in its data report.
A total of 5,091 people have died from the virus in Florida, reports show. That figure includes 109 people from outside the state.
The COVID-19 death toll in Florida topped 5,000 people on Saturday.
The state also reported that 20,971 Florida residents have been hospitalized since the start of the pandemic. That’s 339 more people than the state reported on Saturday.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has complained that latest coronavirus pandemic headlines about the coronavirus record are unfairly terrifying people because the news lacks the “appropriate context and perspective.”
During a news conference Saturday at Flagler Hospital in St. Augustine, DeSantis said the public needs to know that one main reason for the record cases was due to the state receiving 143,000 test COVID-19 test results that day. That day’s percentage of
methods companies use to lure teens to start vaping, it says.
The defendants in the case are JUUL Laboratories and Altria, the parent company of Philip Morris USA and U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company.
Pettis said the lawsuit will not be funded with taxpayer money — if it’s successful, attorneys will be paid from the proceeds of the lawsuit, which seeks an unspecified amount.
“There have been tons of studies that show ecigarettes are addictive and that a large percentage of users go on to be smokers,” Pettis said. “They create a societal movement that shows it’s cool to vape, but they don’t tell you about the damage that’s done in the long run.”
Pettis likened their marketing tactics to the “Joe Camel” cartoon billboards and posters of the 1980s, which critics and anti-tobacco advocates said were aimed at making cigarettes attractive to minors. Because they deal with the same defendant on the same issues, the federal lawsuits have been consolidated and filed in the northern California federal court, Pettis said. About a dozen Florida districts are involved, including
“They create a societal movement that shows it’s cool to vape, but they don’t tell you about the damage that’s done in the long run.”
— Eugene Pettis, Broward School District lawyer
Miami-Dade and Palm Beach Counties. More than 30 California school districts have also joined the suit.
The “bellweather” districts are Broward and Escambia counties in Florida, the Three Village Central School District on Long Island in New York, the Central Bucks County School District in Pennsylvania, the Tucson Unified School District in Arizona and The Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District, east of San Francisco in California.
Messages for JUUL and Altria were not returned Thursday. Altria stopped making e-cigarettes in 2018 but still owns a minority share of JUUL Labs.