Florida Becomes 7th State to Reach 100,000 Coronavirus Cases

Florida's total number of new coronavirus cases reached 100,217 on Monday, making it the seventh state to cross the 100,000 case threshold.

Florida's experiencing an uptick in cases and recorded five record-high increases in new cases within a week. After sparring with officials over the cause of the increase, Governor Ron DeSantis acknowledged on Saturday that people failing to social distance in businesses that reopened could be a contributing factor.

"You do hear reports about people just jam-packed in some of these places, that is not what we're looking to do," DeSantis said. "We want to do it in a very measured way ... when those reasonable guidelines are disobeyed, it ends up defeating some of the purposes of what we're trying to accomplish."

DeSantis said most of the new COVID-19 cases are among people between 20 and 40 years old, an age demographic that's not believed to be at high risk for death from the virus. However, there are concerns about those cases driving community transmission and impacting vulnerable populations. The governor said compliance officers from the Department of Business and Professional Regulation were visiting bars where patrons have been seen packed close together.

On Friday, Florida reported 4,024 cases, a record-high for the past 30 days, according to the Department of Health. That record was broken on Saturday when the department reported 4,671 cases.

Florida has the seventh-highest number of cases out of all 50 states, according to a tracker maintained by Johns Hopkins University. Six other states–Massachusetts, Texas, Illinois, New Jersey, California and New York–have surpassed the 100,000 case mark.

DeSantis championed his response to the new coronavirus outbreak and dismissed criticism of his decision to reopen as cases remained steady in May. Cases began to increase in June, and the state has seen a consistent rise in new cases throughout the month.

The governor initially attributed the increase in cases to "hot spots" such as farm labor camps and other "high-risk environments." Widespread testing in locations where people live or work in close quarters, a known contributor to the spread of the virus, was largely confined to nursing homes at the beginning of the outbreak. It has since expanded to labor farms, prisons and factories and DeSantis said on asymptomatic people who wouldn't have been tested two months ago are now contributing to the increase in positive test rates.

On Saturday, DeSantis acknowledged the number of people testing positive is accelerating faster than the increase in tests and said there's "evidence" of community transmission. To "send a message" to young people, health officials will remind people of the guidelines people should follow for social distancing, but the governor won't require masks in public.

"If you say you're going to be prosecuted, you know, or wear a mask, they'll say 'geez, they were telling me not to wear one in March now they're saying to do it,'" DeSantis said. "We're going to trust people to make good decisions."

For the most part, DeSantis said people in Florida have done their part to slow the spread of the virus and adhere to social distancing measures. Preventing another widespread outbreak will require everyone to follow public health advisories and DeSantis said when people do that, the system works.