Despite being one of the most populated states in the nation, Florida continues to rank as the state with the lowest coronavirus cases per capita, Breitbart reports.
The New York Times’ daily coronavirus case tracker shows Florida currently at just seven coronavirus cases per 100,000, which is lower than any other state. The second-lowest states are Alabama and Hawaii, tied at eight cases per 100,000.
Governor Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) acknowledged the record low numbers at a recent press conference, pointing out that the media has largely ignored the story.
“They don’t want to tell you this, but Florida for like almost a month has been either the lowest or one of the lowest COVID in the entire country,” DeSantis said in Brandon, Florida. “You see it surging in other parts. The corporate media, they don’t like it when it surges in other parts. They only like it when it surges in places that they don’t like.”
Florida, under DeSantis’ leadership, stood out early on in the pandemic as one of the very first states to ease economic restrictions on its residents, largely allowing residents to return to work and school in mid-2020. In recent months, DeSantis has stood against mask mandates and vaccine mandates at the local level, forbidding local authorities from imposing such restrictions and issuing fines for those who try to issue such lockdowns anyway.
The mainstream media has frequently targeted DeSantis, claiming that his lax approach to the Chinese coronavirus was leading to a spike in deaths, despite there being no proof of this. In fact, the number of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths has consistently been higher in states with stricter lockdown measures. Michigan, under Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D-Mich.), currently has about 78 cases per 100,000; in Pennsylvania, under Governor Tom Wolf (D-Penn.), there are about 53 cases per 100,000. And in New York, now under Governor Kathy Hochul (D-N.Y.), the number of cases per capita is 40 per 100,000.