Florida this week was tied for the lowest COVID-19 case rate in the United States among states, according to data provided by the state
Data provided by the Florida Department of Health shows that the state has nine cases per 100,000 people and is tied with Hawaii for being the state with the lowest case rate. U.S. territories such as the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands had lower case rates, it showed.
Since August, according to a release from DeSantis’s office, COVID-19 cases in school children decreased by about 87 percent while cases in adults between the ages of 18 and 24 decreased by 93 percent.
This year, DeSantis has sought to impose fines on businesses and institutions that impose COVID-19 vaccine mandates, and, among other directives, he’s also moved to bar schools from requiring that students wear masks on the premises.
But the Republican governor’s stance against vaccine mandates and masking has triggered significant criticism from the Biden administration and White House health officials. Over the summer, when COVID-19 cases increased in Florida, DeSantis—and his approach toward the pandemic—frequently drew negative headlines.
On Thursday, DeSantis and other top state officials filed a lawsuit against President Joe Biden, NASA, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, and several within the White House Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Defense over the mandate on federal workers and contractors that was announced by the president last month.
The lawsuit argues that NASA and other agencies “frequently [contract] with Florida, has current contractual relationships with Florida, and is and will continue to seek to impose the Biden administration’s unlawful requirements to Florida.”