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Florida Records More Than 21,000 New COVID Cases, Breaking Daily Record

Vaccination rates are sagging across the U.S., and Florida’s infection rates have jumped 50 percent in a week.

Florida has broken its daily COVID-19 case count. The state saw 21,683 new infections in just one day, according to CDC data released Saturday, surpassing a previous peak of 19,334 cases recorded in January. State officials say hospitalizations are reaching levels not seen since the middle of 2020, when vaccinations were not available. Immunization rates are sagging across the U.S., and Florida’s infection rates have jumped 50 percent in a week, and the state now accounts for one in five new infections in the entire country. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has declined to impose restrictions to slow the spread of the virus, going so far as to bar local officials from doing so, or to require vaccinations of state employees, as other states have.