More Florida beaches announce closures as virus cases rise
Source: Associated Press
MIAMI (AP) — Officials are announcing more beaches will be closing again in Florida to avoid further spread of the new coronavirus as they try to tamp down on large gatherings amid a spike in confirmed COVID-19 cases.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a news conference Sunday in Pensacola that interactions among young people are driving the surge in confirmed cases. Meanwhile in Broward County, home to Fort Lauderdale, authorities said they would be closing beaches during the busy Fourth of July weekend following the decision of Miami-Dade County to close theirs between July 3 and July 7.
The Florida Department of Health reported on Sunday more than 8,500 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 29 deaths. In total, the state now has more than 141,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 3,400 deaths.
New hospitalizations are also ticking upward, although not as dramatically as the new cases. New admissions this week have been between 160 and 170 per day, according to figures compiled by covidtracking.com.
Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/more-florida-beaches-announce-closures-as-virus-cases-rise/ar-BB164PUP?li=BBnb7Kz
Well, in just a few days, DeSantis moved from blaming Hispanic immigrant farm workers to young people.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/latino-leaders-demand-gov-desantis-apologize-linking-hispanic-farmworkers-covid-n1231785
MIAMI — Florida Latino Democratic and civil rights leaders demanded Monday that Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis apologize for and clarify his recent comments attributing the state's steep rise in positive COVID-19 tests to "overwhelmingly Hispanic farmworkers" and day laborers.
"It's absolutely embarrassing, appalling," state Rep. Javier Fernández said during a news call Monday. "We're living in very dark and sad times" when the governor places blame not on "his failed leadership but on some of the most vulnerable members of our community here in Florida."
Natascha Otero-Santiago, vice president of the Democratic Hispanic Caucus of Florida, said DeSantis should release "an announcement or a statement saying where he has gotten this information that Latinos are the ones spreading and are the cause of the exponential growth of COVID-19."
Florida has had a spike in coronavirus cases since mid-May, and it now has over 100,000 confirmed cases and 3,173 deaths. The majority of the cases are in Miami-Dade County, the state's most populous area. Testing in Florida has grown steadily, but experts have warned that the increase in the number of cases cannot be attributed solely to testing.
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