Roommates, Florida is currently at the center of very alarming COVID-19 numbers, the state currently leads the nation with over 16,000 new cases reported within the last 48 hours. Additionally, on July 27th, Florida reported over 12,000 new COVID-19 cases for seven consecutive days in a row.

These latest cases now brings Florida’s seven-day average of new cases to a total of 13,502. The state has also reported 92 deaths on Tuesday and a weekly average of 57 deaths, according to new data from the CDC.

To put Florida’s COVID-19 cases into numerical perspective, across the nation an estimated 80,701 new cases were reported Tuesday—meaning that the state of Florida accounted for around 20% of the newly reported cases. Additionally, the 92 reported deaths in the state represented around were about 22% of the COVID-19 deaths throughout the country.

Meanwhile, Florida’s Broward County School System recently announced that all students will be required to wear masks at the start of the new school year and Miami-Dade Public Schools will require masks on buses, as they make a formal decision on mask requirements on school campus.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has been in the middle of intense criticism for his anti-mask stance and his refusal to reinstate wearing masks in public places and making it mandatory for all schools.

“We in Florida, to this point, our school districts have proposed mask-optional (policies.) But I think our fear is that, seeing some of those rumblings, that there’d be an attempt from the federal level or even some of these organizations to try to push for mandatory masking of school children,” he said during a recent press conference.

 

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Roommates, President Joe Biden held a recent press conference at the White House and urged both state and local governments to use previously distributed federal funding to give $100 to all residents who get fully vaccinated.

President Biden further explained that his decision was based on beating the COVID-19 virus by any means. “If incentives help us beat the virus, I believe we should use them. We all benefit if we get more people vaccinated,” he said.

He continued in his speech, adding:

“Throughout America’s vaccination efforts, we have seen that financial incentives serve as a motivating factor for some people to get vaccinated. When the grocery store Kroger started offering $100 to their associates to get vaccinated, it saw vaccination rates increase from 50% to 75%. States like New Mexico, Ohio, and Colorado have piloted $100 incentive programs that have also helped move the dial on vaccinations.”

The Biden administration also revealed its hopes that the $100 incentives be paid for with the $350 billion in aid granted to all state, local, territorial and tribal governments under the American Rescue Plan Act.

Elsewhere, President’s Biden and mask stance also extends to government employees. He is now urging all federal government employees and onsite contractors to be fully vaccinated.

However, those who are not vaccinated will have to continue to wear a mask, socially distance themselves from others and comply with weekly testing requirements. The mandate applies to about 4 million federal employees.

 

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