FLORIDA, MIAMI, July 12 – Florida reported Sunday that it recorded a record 15,300 new cases of coronavirus, the highest number reached by a state in just one day since the pandemic began.
The staggering number was the result of both increased testing and extensive community transmission that has affected the state’s population centers, as well as its rural areas.
These numbers broke previous California highs of 11,694 reported and 11,571 reported by New York on April 15.
Florida will host the Republican National Convention in Jacksonville next month and has ordered schools to reopen five days a week.
Shortly before Florida announced the new cases, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos made the rounds on the news talk shows this Sunday, where she continued to pressure schools to open even as new evidence emerged that the United States is failing to control new infections.
In an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union,” DeVos said he would like to see closed schools be the “exception” rather than the norm. “The goal should be for children to be learning full time this fall,” he said. “Children need to go back to classrooms.”