Gov. DeSantis responds to recent coronavirus case increase

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Florida health officials on Friday reported the largest single-day spike in coronavirus cases since the beginning of the pandemic.

Florida has seen an increase of over 1,000 COVID-19 cases in 16 of the last 17 days.

The numbers released by the Florida Department of Health Friday morning show a 3,822-case increase, bringing the total number of cases statewide to 89,748. The death count increased by 43, bringing the death toll to 3,104.

Hospitalizations reached 12,774 on Friday. That’s 197 more hospitalizations than were reported the previous day.

Despite that spike, Gov. Ron DeSantis says the state will not be shutting down again. He says the recent increase can be attributed to increased testing.

During a discussion at Florida International University in Miami Friday, DeSantis continued to stress that the median age of positive COVID-19 cases are “plunging” due to more testing.

According to DeSantis, the median age of positive cases from Thursday are as follows:

Hillsborough: 31
Broward: 33
Duval: 30
Seminole: 26
Orange: 29
Dade: 41
Palm Beach: 40

The percent positivity for new cases – or the number of people who tested positive for the first time divided by all the people tested that day – was 10% on Thursday. The total percent positive of all tests – including people who have been tested on multiple days – was 11.7%. State officials say a total of 30,768 people tested negative while 4,066 tests came back positive.

“I think you’ve seen an increase in positivity these last few days because you had some discreet outbreaks,” DeSantis said. “So that’s something we’re obviously keeping an eye on.”

The United States has eclipsed 2.19 million cases of the virus, with over 118,000 deaths. In total, the world has seen over 8.5 million cases, with over 454,000 deaths.

Here is a county-by-county breakdown of cases across Tampa Bay: (*Have not been updated, what is shown is Thursday’s numbers)