Florida Nears 100k Mark As US Reports Largest Jump In Daily COVID-19 Cases In 7 Weeks: Live Updates

With only a few more hours to go until US equity futures open on Sunday night, it appears the dire situation across the American south and West has gone from bad to worse. According to a Washington Post tally of coronavirus data released by each state on Saturday, 8 states on Saturday reported their highest single-day case counts since the pandemic began, and the pan-US tally of new infections surpassed 30,000 for the second straight day (both Friday and Saturday). The US hasn’t regularly reported 30k COVID-19 cases a day in seven weeks. And while New York and the surrounding states that caught the brunt of the outbreak – or the first wave, at least – haven’t seen the feared upsurge in new cases.

States across the South and West, including Florida, Texas, Georgia, South Carolina, Utah, Washington, Nevada and Missouri, set records for single-day confirmed cases, and 13 states set new highs for their 7-day averages.

On Sunday, Florida reported another 3,494 new cases, bringing the statewide total to 97,291. Though Sunday’s number broke a streak of daily records, it is still well above the 7-day average seen in recent weeks, leaving the state on track to pass the 100k case mark tomorrow.

Florida would become the 7th state to pass 100k behind New York, California, New Jersey, Illinois, Texas, Massachusetts.

Source: NYT

According to the NYT, 22 states were listed under the “increasing” tab of its coronavirus tracker.

Furthermore, while the Washington Post reported that the first iterations of the COVID-19 tests distributed nationwide in March and April by the CDC were so inaccurate as to be practically useless, a chorus of Democratic critics led by Joe Biden has spoken out against President Trump over a remark he made during last night’s rally in Tulsa, when he suggested that he pressed the CDC to hold back on the testing during the early days of the outbreak.

Even if Trump was telling the truth (the president, of course, has a widely acknowledged tendency to exaggerate when speaking extemporaneously at these rallies), a surge in testing during the early days of the outbreak may have only created more confusion. But many of the president’s Democratic critics claimed Trump’s remarks further cemented the notion that he put the economy before safeguarding the lives of the most vulnerable Americans.

“The President said tonight that he slowed down testing so the public death toll wouldn’t be worse,” Elizabeth Warren tweeted. “We still don’t have a national testing strategy & Trump’s plan is to bury his head. This is a deadly failure.”

Outside of the US, Spain officially entered the next phase of its reopening plan on Sunday, which included allowing tourists from most of Europe, but warning that social distancing  measures must be followed to avoid a second wave. Speaking just before the three-month-old measures expired at midnight Saturday, Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez asked the country to keep its guard up.

“We will leave behind the state of alarm and we will enter the new normality…our economy is starting to beat. We are in a situation where we can move forward. We can’t drop our guard,” he reportedly said.

After finally wrestling a surprisingly virulent outbreak under control, Saudi Arabia on Sunday removed curfews and other restrictions imposed to fight its spread after 73 days of w relatively restrictive lockdown that also kept millions of Muslim pilgrims out of the Holy Cities as pilgrimmages were put on hold.

Over in East Asia, South Korea reported 48 new cases of the virus, 8 of which were imported, half from Bangladesh and half from Pakistan. In response, South Korea announced Saturday that it would restrict travel from both countries.