The state’s infection toll now stands at more than 77,000 cases.
June 16, 2020, 9:56 AM
7 min read
Miami, which is among Florida’s most populous cities, will not move into the next phase of reopening because of concerns about rising COVID-19 cases, Mayor Francis Suarez announced during a Monday news conference.
Although the majority of Florida is in Phase 2 of reopening, rising new coronavirus cases in the state may put a damper on residents’ new freedom.
An ABC News analysis of New York Times data found that Florida is one of 22 states in which new positive coronavirus cases have increased over the past 14 days. While some states with an increasing number of cases, such as Montana, Hawaii and Alaska, have so few overall infections that their relative rises aren’t significant, as of Monday, Florida had reported more than 77,000 positive cases and roughly 3,000 deaths from COVID-19, according to the state’s health department.
When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) stay-at-home order expired on May 4, there were roughly 680 cases being diagnosed each day in the state. As of June 14, Florida’s seven-day rolling average for new COVID-19 infections, which accounts for fluctuations in the number of cases, was 1,661 per day.
State officials have previously pointed to increased testing as a possible explanation for the influx of new cases.
“Florida is actively searching for COVID-positive individuals to provide immediate treatment and contact tracing to help prevent the broader spread of the disease,” a spokesperson from the governor’s office told ABC News. “This is evident in the 30 state-operated testing sites throughout Florida that include areas with vulnerable and/or underserved communities. This aggressive testing strategy is proving to be successful and will continue.”
A high positivity rate can be a sign that a state is only testing its sickest patients and failing to cast a net wide enough to accurately capture community transmission, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Florida’s positivity rate has risen from 3.6% in early May to 4.2% in early June, but it’s lower than the 10% positivity threshold experts say states should aim to keep well below. In comparison, South Korea, considered global leader for its COVID-19 response, never had a positivity rate above 1% or 2%.
A more worrisome sign is that Florida has seen a rise in new hospitalizations in recent weeks, according to an ABC News analysis of public data. That uptick cannot be attributed to more testing.
Data out of Florida has been mired in controversy. The state’s coronavirus data scientist was fired over disagreement surrounding Florida’s public-facing coronavirus database, according to the Washington Post. That scientist has since launched her own competing COVID-19 database, which shows higher case counts and deaths than the state’s database does.
While the city will not be going into Phase 3, there are no plans to roll back the opening or to return to a stay-at-home mandate, either. Instead, the city will hold in place.
“If we continue on this trajectory, we are going to be put in the position where we have to make tough choices,” Suarez said, noting that there had been an uptick in infections among young people between the ages of 18 and 35.
ABC News’ Meredith Deliso, Benjamin Bell, Terrance Smith, Soorin Kim, Brian Hartman, Arielle Mitropoulos and Kate Holland contributed to this report
What to know about the coronavirus:
Tune into ABC at 1 p.m. ET and ABC News Live at 4 p.m. ET every weekday for special coverage of the novel coronavirus with the full ABC News team, including the latest news, context and analysis.
