A sad record for Florida. Some 15,299 new cases of Covid-19 were recorded in 24 hours in the third most populous US state. The total published by the Florida Department of Health on Sunday represents almost a half increase (47%) compared to the number of new cases noted during the previous day. The state of the extreme south-east of the country also experienced 45 new deaths linked to the coronavirus in 24 hours, and 514 additional deaths in a week.

In five days, Florida registered 55,842 positive cases. So far, the record for 24-hour new cases in one state was in California, with 11,694 announced Wednesday, followed by New York State, with 11,571 people found positive for the virus on April 14.

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Disney World controversial reopening

The Ministry of Health says that the state is doing everything possible to fight the virus, but there is no question of confining the population. "I don't think we should confine, at least not in most places," said Brett Giroir, US assistant secretary of health on NBC news. "Of course closing everything would be a solution, but it's not necessary."

The outbreak has thus corresponded to the reopening to the public, on Saturday, of part of the Disney World amusement park in Florida. Hundreds of people queued to go to the Magic Kingdom, one of the two spaces to welcome the public with the Animal Kingdom, after four months of closure. The systematic taking of temperature at the entrance, the wearing of the compulsory mask, the omnipresence of hydroalcoholic gel dispensers and the minimum spacing of two meters in each attraction or inside the shops have been implemented.

But these precautions were not sufficient in the eyes of American scientists. "The initiative has angered American scientists, but it illustrates the American paradox of the moment: saving lives or saving the economy," comments Matthieu Mabin, France 24 correspondent in Washington. 

Controversy over deconfinement

Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis decided to begin phasing out containment as early as May 4, before most states in the country. The director of the American Institute of Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci, said on Thursday that Florida had come out of containment before all public health indicators warranted it.

Ron DeSantis disputed this diagnosis, saying that his decision was based on contamination figures from the time. But at the end of June, the governor went back and ordered the bars closed in an attempt to limit the spread of the virus. He has so far refused to make the wearing of the mask mandatory in Florida, saying the decision was up to local communities.

There are still many skeptics of Covid-19 in the United States, the country most heavily affected by the epidemic in the world. However, this weekend, the Americans were marked by two events: the departure of Donald Trump wearing, for the first time, a mask on his face, and the death of a 30-year-old deceased from the Covid-19. "He had participated in a 'Covid party', one of these parties gathering the skeptics and which aim to demonstrate that the Covid-19 is only a global political hoax", details Matthieu Mabin. 

With AFP

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