Fla. sets new high in COVID-19 deaths
U.S. health chief calls mask use ‘a civic duty’
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Florida surpassed its previous one-day record for coronavirus deaths Tuesday.
Florida reported 132 additional deaths, topping the previous record for the state set just last week. The figure likely includes deaths from the past weekend that had not been previously reported.
Even so, the new deaths raised Florida’s seven-day average to 81 per day, more than double the figure of two weeks ago and now the second-highest in the United States behind Texas.
Doctors have predicted a surge in deaths as Florida’s number of daily reported cases has gone from about 2,000 a day a month ago to a daily average of about 11,000, including a record 15,000 on Sunday. The state recorded 9,194 new cases Tuesday.
Marlyn Hoilette, a nurse who spent four months working in the COVID-19 unit of her Florida hospital until testing positive recently, said she worries about returning given the pressure to handle the surge in cases.
Word of the rising toll in Florida came as Arizona officials tallied 4,273 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19.
The state, which became a virus hot spot after Gov. Doug Ducey relaxed stay-at-home orders and other restrictions in May, reported 3,517 patients hospitalized because of the disease, a record high. Arizona’s death toll from COVID-19 rose to 2,337, with 92 additional deaths reported Tuesday.
The director of the top U.S. public health agency urged Americans to wear masks to help contain the virus.
“At this critical juncture when COVID-19 is resurging, broad adoption of cloth face coverings is a civic duty, a small sacrifice reliant on a highly effective low-tech solution that can help turn the tide,” wrote Dr. Robert Redfield and two colleagues at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in an editorial published online Tuesday by the journal of the American Medical Association.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, offered encouragement —tinged by firsthand experience — to young people on doing their part in separating politics from science as they navigate life in the age of coronavirus.
“Do your thing, and don’t get involved in any of the political nonsense, that’s a waste of time, and a distraction,” Fauci advised students during a virtual forum Tuesday, hosted by Georgetown University’s Global Health Initiative.