Florida Governor Urged To Address Worst COVID-19 Explosion

Democrats urged the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, to stand up in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic amid the “worst” explosion of cases due to the omicron variant, which is breaking records in the state, with about 47,000 new cases on Tuesday, according to reports this Wednesday from federal authorities.

“Where is our government? Where is Ron DeSantis now? When was the last time you saw the governor at a press conference on COVID-19 ″ asked Jerry Demings, mayor of Orange, a county in central Florida where the city of Orlando is.

“All Florida residents should be outraged,” added the Democrat about the attention to this new health crisis, one of the worst in the United States, after New York, and which has saturated places to perform tests.

Florida on Tuesday presented a new record of daily cases since they began to be counted in March 2020, with 46,923 infected, according to today’s data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The figure surpasses the records of Thursday, December 23 (31,000) and Friday (32,000) and increases to more than 4 million the cases presented in the state since the beginning of the pandemic.

Additionally, with about 170,000 new cases in 7 days through last Sunday, according to the CDC, Florida posted a weekly record that surpassed the 22-month coronavirus crisis.

“As tens of thousands of Floridians fall ill every day, Ron DeSantis and Florida Republicans refuse to endorse measures that prevent infections and save lives,” Marcus Dixon, executive director of the Florida Democratic Party, said Wednesday.

For his part, Demings criticized that the Republican government has not provided the attention that local governments need while, in the middle of Christmas and travel time, long lines are formed for COVID-19 tests and the kits are out of stock in some parts. to be tested at home.

The mayor declared that the highly contagious omicron variant is spreading and had “taken hold” in Orange County, with a large population of Puerto Ricans.

“We are seeing very large numbers, but we can handle this spread if we continue to get tested and vaccinated,” said Demings.

Faced with long lines to get tested and the depletion of home testing packages, Democrats have called for DeSantis to intervene.

Dixon stressed in a statement that DeSantis has “minimized” the effectiveness of vaccines and has opposed “common sense” measures such as the mandatory use of masks during the pandemic.

The speed with which it has hit the omicron in Florida exceeds the highest peak of the pandemic, which was experienced last August, with record cases, hospitalizations and saturation of intensive care beds.

According to CDC data, Florida counted 14,749 new cases the week of Dec. 6-12, and since then it has tripled each of the following two weeks.

As of this Tuesday, Florida had 2,754 people hospitalized for COVID-19, 83% more than the last 7 days.