Florida Surpasses New York as the State with Second-Highest Confirmed Coronavirus Cases

New York, once the hotspot of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., now has the third-highest number of confirmed cases behind California and Florida

Photo: HANDAN KHANNA/Getty Images

Florida has officially surpassed New York to become the state with the second-highest official coronavirus case count, trailing behind California.

According to Johns Hopkins University's coronavirus database, Florida reported another 12,444 COVID-19 cases on Friday, bringing its total to 414,511.

New York, once the center of the outbreak, has 411,200 confirmed cases as of Saturday. California, meanwhile, has the most coronavirus infections of all 50 states, with 440,325 confirmed cases.

In Florida, at least 5,777 people have died from the deadly virus, while New York has recorded 32,607 coronavirus-related fatalities — the most of any other state.

The Sunshine State has also seen a significant rise in hospitalizations due to the coronavirus. Earlier this month, the Agency for Health Care Administration reported that 54 hospitals in Florida have zero available beds in their intensive care units, while another 40 hospitals in the state reportedly have less than 10 percent bed availability in their ICUs.

Ten of the hospitals with no ICU beds available are located in Miami-Dade County, the state's current COVID-19 hotspot.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez told CNN earlier this month that most of the county's hospital beds and intensive care units have reached capacity with patients. "Our ventilator usage has gone up, close to 200 now, so we definitely had a sharp increase in the number of people going to the hospital,” Gimenez said.

People wearing masks wait to enter the Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, Florida on July 8, 2020. CRISTOBAL HERRERA-ULASHKEVICH/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Despite the surge of cases in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis has remained optimistic about the crisis. Last week, he said that the state had “stabilized” the number of cases and cited a decline in the percent of coronavirus tests that came back positive.

According to CNBC, just over 11 percent of Florida's coronavirus tests came back positive on Friday, down from a recent high of about 15 percent in late June.

“We’re definitely trending in a better direction,” DeSantis said. “We’re trending much better today than we were two weeks ago.”

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