Florida reports 15,000 new coronavirus cases, smashing national record

Florida on Sunday reported more than 15,000 new coronavirus cases, smashing the daily record reported by any single state and once again putting an international spotlight on a place that does not have the virus under control.

The eye-popping topline figure does come with some caveats.

The Florida Department of Health received 135,992 results from people who have never been tested before, and 15,299 of those tests came back positive for Covid-19. The positivity rate of new infections was 11.25 percent, which is at least a two-week low and down significantly since the state’s record high of 18 percent reported on Wednesday. Still, public health experts express concern about positivity rates over 10 percent, a number Florida has not dipped below since June 23.