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New Epicenter? Florida Breaks Its COVID-19 Record Yet Again

Gov. Ron DeSantis blames increased testing for higher case numbers, but experts say that’s inaccurate.

Florida obliterated its one-day record for new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, reporting another 3,207 diagnoses. Gov. Ron DeSantis has been insisting the state’s weeklong spike is due to increased testing, and he’s vowing that he won’t impose a new lockdown. But public health experts say the coronavirus is surging so quickly that ramped-up testing cannot be the only cause. Ira Longini, a biostatistician and epidemiologist at the University of Florida, told the Tallahassee Democrat that reopening and a lack of contact tracing is fueling the spread of the virus. Meanwhile, modelers at the University of Pennsylvania say Florida now has “all the markings of the next large epicenter of coronavirus transmission.”