"Coronavirus cases are spiking across the country and experts say Florida... [View all]

[Buckeye_Democrat]

... has the makings of the next epicenter."

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/06/18/us/us-coronavirus-thursday/index.html

(CNN) Ten states saw a record number of new Covid-19 cases this week, and one of them could be the next epicenter of the pandemic.

Florida reported 3,207 additional coronavirus cases on Thursday -- the largest single day count in the state since the pandemic, according to Florida Department of Health. Florida's total reported cases climbed to nearly 86,000, according to data released by the state.

The Sunshine State has "all the markings of the next large epicenter of coronavirus transmission," and risks being the "worst it has ever been," according to Wednesday's projections from a model by scientists at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania.

"The potential for the virus to take off there is very, very nerve-racking and could have catastrophic consequences" because of the state's aging population and the prevalence of nursing homes and retirement communities, Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, director of the division of infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, told CNN on Thursday.

Florida joins nine other states -- Alabama, Arizona, California, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina and Texas -- that are seeing record-high seven-day averages of new coronavirus cases per day, according to a CNN analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University.

More than three quarters of Florida's adult intensive care unit beds are occupied, according to data from the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration. General hospital beds were at nearly 75% capacity across the state...

... Despite the rising number of cases, the White House has downplayed the risks, with President Donald Trump saying Wednesday in an interview with Gray TV that the virus is "dying out."

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