Florida, which was one of the first US states to emerge from its confinement, recorded a record number of day-long deaths from the coronavirus on Tuesday. Health officials in the southeastern US state have announced 132 deaths and more than 9,000 new cases in the past 24 hours.
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This brings the total toll of Florida, one of the current epicenters of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country, to more than 4,400 dead and 290,000 cases reported. Its Republican governor Ron DeSantis was one of the first in the United States, in early May, to loosen containment measures and to reopen its economy, which is very dependent on the tourism industry.
A decision deemed too hasty last week by immunologist Anthony Fauci, a prominent member of the presidential crisis cell on the coronavirus, in a rare personal criticism of the governor. The latter denied it, claiming to have relied at the time on available statistics.
He had partially backtracked in late June by ordering a virtual closure of the bars, but the number of infections has since continued to increase in Florida, as in other states in the south and west of the country.