July 26 (UPI) — Florida surpassed New York in total COVID-19 cases after reporting more than 9,000 new cases on Sunday.
The Florida Department of Health on Sunday reported 9,344 new cases for a total of 423,855, surpassing New York’s total of 411,736 and placing it behind only California, which reported a total of 453,659 after reporting 8,259 new cases on Sunday.
Florida also reported 77 new deaths of Florida residents for a total of 5,854. The state record was 173 last Thursday.
The United States has reported a total of 4,209,922 cases and 146,722 deaths, according to figures by John’s Hopkins University.
More than one-third of the cases reported in Florida have been among people between the ages of 15 and 34, with outbreaks in jails, farms and nursing homes, the health department reported.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health said that it sent an alert to healthcare providers after observing a “significant increase” in COVID-19 cases among people aged 19-24.
Pennsylvania reported 800 new positive cases for a total of 107,425 and four new deaths for a total of 7,118.
Louisiana reported 3,840 new COVID-19 cases since Friday, for a total of 107,574 as the state’s Department of Health said 94% of the new cases reported Sunday were tied to community spread, rather than congregate settings.
Arizona reported 1,973 new cases on Sunday for a total of 162,014 and 19 new deaths for a death toll of 3,305.
Amid ongoing calls from President Donald Trump for schools to reopen in-person instruction in the fall, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told CBS News’ Face The Nation that the administration does not believe in “uniform thresholds” for school reopenings.
“Each community is going to have to make the determination about the circumstances for reopening and what steps they take for reopening,” Azar said. “But the presumption should be that we get our kids back to school and figure out how to make that happen.”
Trump administration testing czar, Adm. Brett Giroir, on Sunday acknowledged delays in the reporting of testing results, saying that average turnaround time for commercial labs that perform about half the tests in the country is about 4 days.
“We are trying to bring that down. Just this week, pooling was authorized in both of the large labs Quest and LabCorp. That will improve efficiency,” he told CNN’s State of the Union. “We’re adding surge testing to a number of cities where there are outbreaks.”
