#Florida won’t back off reopening plans despite record coronavirus cases

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday reportedly said he won’t stop economic reopening efforts as the state recorded its highest daily increase in coronavirus cases in a single day.

“We’re not shutting down, we’re gonna go forward,” he said at a press conference, according to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. “We’re gonna continue to protect the most vulnerable.”

The Sunshine State on Tuesday tallied 2,783 new instances of the coronavirus — the fourth time in six days a record number of cases was met, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

But the governor said the higher case count is tied in part to the increased testing in the state.

He also pointed out that younger populations, many of whom don’t exhibit symptoms, have also tested positive.

During his press conference, he showed slides detailing recent outbreaks among construction workers, prisoners and at migrant farmworker camps, according to the Herald Tribune.

While COVID-19 cases have been on the rise in Florida over the past two weeks, the number of daily deaths linked to the disease has kept steady at around 40 since early May, according to the Tampa Bay Times.