For the 5th day in a row, Florida reports more than 10,000 new COVID-19 cases

People on the beach in Miami.
(Image credit: Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images)

Florida recorded 12,523 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday — the fifth day in a row the state reported more than 10,000 new infections.

Rep. Donna Shalala (D-Fla.) said on Sunday's This Week there is "community spread, which means the virus is out of control." Shalala also accused Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who will not issue a statewide mask order, of doing Floridians a disservice by pushing to reopen the state too quickly. "The residents here are terrified and I'm terrified, for the first time in my career because there's a lack of leadership," she added. Shalala believes it's time to "close down in Florida. Our economy will not come back until we meet this virus at its head and bring it down."

In an interview that aired Sunday morning, President Trump told Fox News host Chris Wallace that "we have embers and we do have flames. Florida became more flame-like, but it's going to be under control." Since the coronavirus pandemic began earlier this year, Trump has said at least 19 times that the virus will vanish, and he told Wallace he'll be "right eventually. It's going to disappear and I'll be right."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

On average, the United States is reporting 60,000 new cases a day, Reuters reports. At least 3.7 million coronavirus cases have been recorded in the country, and the death toll has surpassed 140,000.

Continue reading for free

We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.

Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.

Catherine Garcia

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.