MIAMI, Fla. – Florida has set a record for new COVID-19 cases with 46,923 reported, according to numbers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The new numbers from Tuesday shattered the record set on Christmas Eve with 32,874 cases.
The current cases have now have pushed Florida to more than 4 million with a total of 4,012,152 since the pandemic began.
In Miami-Dade County, nearly 1 in every four tests done in the last seven days has come back positive for COVID-19. Miami-Dade County also updated its 7-day average positivity rate on Wednesday, which is up 1 percent and now at 25 percent.
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings had strong words for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. “Our residents, all Florida residents, should be outraged and they should ask the question, ‘Now where is our state? Where is our governor? Where is Ron DeSantis now?’ " Demings talked about decisions DeSantis made regarding the state and the pandemic.
“Back on Nov. 18 when he held a press conference he signed into law, legislation that effectively prohibited local governments from being able to take charge and lead in our fight against COVID-19,” Demings said at a news conference on Tuesday.
Both Miami-Dade and Broward counties are opening new sites to accommodate the demand for testing.
[WHERE ARE SITES? Testing and vaccination sites in Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe counties can be found by clicking here.]
Miami-Dade has extended hours at the South Dade Government Center, Tropical Park, Zoo Miami and Aventura Mall. And also opened new locations at the Youth Fairgrounds at Tamiami Park and Dolphin Station Park & Ride. At FTX Arena in downtown Miami will be open 24 hours a day for testing through Friday at 1 p.m.
In Broward County, capacity is being increased at Markham, CB Smith and Mills Pond Parks and a new site will be opening at Mullins Park on Monday.
Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported that new cases of COVID-19 in the United States have soared to their highest level on record at over 265,000 per day on average. Health officials attribute the surge to the highly contagious omicron variant.
New cases per day have more than doubled over the past two weeks, eclipsing the old mark of 250,000, set in mid-January, according to data kept by Johns Hopkins University, reported the AP.
(Local 10 executive producer Natalie Morera contributed to this report.)