PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. – With coronavirus cases in Florida on an upward trend and the state reporting more than 1,000 cases each day since June 3 except for one (June 8), it is likely Monday will be a milestone.
On Sunday, the Florida Department of Health reported 97,291 total cases to date in the state. By Monday, that number should be over 100,000 if confirmed cases of COVID-19 continue on the ascent as they have this month.
Medical experts are saying that the rise is because there is more testing being done, but also because of people letting their guard down and not maintaining proper social distancing since the state’s reopening.
Overnight from Saturday to Sunday, 3,494 cases were reported in just 24 hours in Florida.
In South Florida, Miami had an increase of 439 cases from Saturday to Sunday, while Fort Lauderdale had 67 new cases in the same time period.
Miami-Dade County is a hot spot with 710 new cases overnight and 25,790 cases in total. Broward County has 11,555 cases with 315 new cases logged overnight from Saturday to Sunday. Miami-Dade County has the most cases in the state, followed by Broward and then Palm Beach counties.
(RELATED: See By The Numbers: Cases by City in Broward and Miami-Dade counties)
Florida’s Lt. Governor Jeanette Nunez acknowledged the spike in the number of cases. “I want to be clear, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it is a spike in the number of people that are sick. A lot of these cases that we are detecting are asymptomatic.”
Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis said that many of the new cases in Florida are within a younger demographic that, most likely, will not need to be hospitalized.
While that younger demographic may not require hospital care, Aileen Marty, M.D., infectious disease expert with FIU College of Medicine, said it will only be a matter of time before ICU beds will be filled.
“Those people with milder symptoms still have tremendously high viral loads and they can infect those among us who have underlying conditions or elderly who are more likely to end up in the hospital.”
See hospitalization and death rates of age groups