Christina Pushaw, a spokeswoman for DeSantis, told The Washington Post on Thursday that omicron is responsible for most of the new cases in Florida, adding that many of the new infections appear to be “asymptomatic or mild.” She noted how states such as California and New York are also breaking records for new infections, saying it is “evident that the vaccine passports, mask mandates and other heavy-handed government interventions did not achieve their stated goals.”

“In Florida, we are continuing to emphasize the importance of early treatment and doing everything possible to expand access to clinically effective treatments,” Pushaw said in a statement. “Governor DeSantis is not imposing any mandates or lockdown policies that have already proven ineffective in other parts of the country.”

More than 4,400 people in Florida are hospitalized with covid, including 498 in the intensive care unit. While the hospitalization rate has increased by more than 100 percent compared to last week, Pushaw argued that “the percentage of cases requiring hospitalization as of now is lower overall than we saw with previous variants.”