New cases of covid-19 in Florida totaled 10,431 this Saturday, the third consecutive day that exceeded 10,000, and in addition there were 91 more deaths, which raises infections and deaths since March 1 to 1,049,638 and 19,084, respectively.
Florida is one of the three US states that has exceeded one million accumulated cases, behind California and Texas, and the fourth by number of deaths in this pandemic, according to Johns Hopkins University.
While Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican and close to President Donald Trump, does not speak of the growing increase in covid-19 cases and puts all his hopes on the vaccine, the authorities in South Florida, where the epicenter of the pandemic is located in this state, they express their concern and call on the population to follow the basic rules to avoid contagion.
According to figures from the Florida Department of Health, Miami-Dade County accumulates 241,051 cases and 3,896 deaths from the new coronavirus disease to date.
Its neighbor Broward adds 112,729 cases and 1,694 deaths.
The great concern is that the health system will collapse, although the economic and social consequences of the pandemic are also a headache for municipal authorities.
To date, there are 4,343 people hospitalized in Florida with covid-19, of which 761 in Miami-Dade and 441 in Broward, and 20.95% of the places in intensive care units in the state are free, according to information updated from the Florida Health Care Agency (AHCA).
Hospitalizations for covid-19 since March in Florida exceed 56,000.
The positivity rate in the tests whose results were known today is 7.32% and that of the last seven days is 8.17%.
The mayor of Miami-Dade, Daniella Levine Cava, and the mayors of two cities in that county on Saturday urged the federal government and Congress to approve a new economic stimulus package ‘as soon as possible’, given the serious social situation in this South Florida area for covid-19.
‘We need help more than ever,’ said Levine Cava, who indicated that the one received before was a ‘lifesaver’, but it has already sold out and, according to statistical data, Miami-Dade, with almost 3 million inhabitants, of which almost one 70% Hispanic, it is the most food insecure area in the entire country.
Negotiations for a second economic stimulus package are advancing in Congress, but this time the bipartisan plan would not include personal checks for $ 1,200 as in the first, according to newspaper media.
Levine Cava, who suffers from covid-19 and is in quarantine, appeared virtually at a press conference that mayors Francis Suárez, of Miami, and Dan Gelber, of Miami Beach, held in person at a point in the latter city where today there were a free distribution of food. EFE
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