Florida urged to ramp up vaccination effort amid ‘alarming’ Covid rise

State accounts for almost a quarter of new US infections as frustration grows at what experts say is governor's mixed messaging

The week began with Florida's high-flying governor, Ron DeSantis, in Texas, bashing Joe Biden over immigration at the southern border. But with the highly contagious Delta variant pushing new cases of Covid-19 in his home state to their highest level since January, DeSantis's road trip was looking increasingly deaf in tone and timing.

By week's end, Florida was accounting for almost a quarter of new infections nationally, with the US surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, warning of an alarming" rise in deaths and hospitalizations.