Jun 6, 2020 - Health

Coronavirus curve rises in Florida

Orion Rummler

A crowd on a beach watches the Blue Angels fly overhead — People watch the U.S. Navy Blue Angels perform a flyover on May 8 in Jacksonville, Florida. Photo: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images

Over 1,000 new infections have been reported every day in Florida since Tuesday, the longest sustained increase in the state since early April, according to the state health department's tracker and a New York Times analysis.

Why it matters: Florida entered its second phase of reopening on Friday, which does not place a limit on how many customers can be in stores or gyms and allows bars to serve half as many guests as they normally would. Social distancing is encouraged at all businesses.

The state's second reopening phase excludes Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, which are all reporting the most coronavirus infections in the state.
41 new deaths were reported Thursday, with 53 additional fatalities on Friday — and a slight drop as of Saturday, with 28 deaths.

Driving the news: Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters on Wednesday that he had volunteered several cities to be potential sites for the Republican National Convention, including Jacksonville, Orlando and Miami.

“So this is almost three months out, I think we’re probably going to be able to pull it off,” DeSantis said on Wednesday, AP reports.
The governor indicated that if the convention is held in Florida, face masks and testing would be offered, depending on how widespread the virus is at the time, per AP.

The big picture: The RNC is considering several cities across the South and Sun Belt for its convention, including Jacksonville, Phoenix, Dallas, Nashville, Atlanta and possibly New Orleans and Savannah, Axios' Jonathan Swan and Alayna Treene report.

Texas and Arizona have also seen significant spikes in infections over the last week, Axios' Andrew Witherspoon and Sam Baker report.

Go deeper: Florida's slow response may have made its coronavirus outbreak worse

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Coronavirus curve rises in Florida

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