State health officials reported 966 new cases of COVID-19, Monday, increasing the statewide total to 64,904 confirmed cases. Monday’s data marks the first time since June 3 that the single-day increase in reported cases did not exceed one thousand people.
The Florida Department of Health also reported 12 new coronavirus-related deaths, Monday, bringing the statewide death toll to 2,712 fatalities. The total number of virus-related hospitalizations in Florida stands at 10,942 patients.
Of the 1,235,513 tests that have been performed in Florida so far, 5.3 percent have been positive for the virus.
In the Southwest Florida region including Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry, Lee, Manatee and Sarasota Counties, health officials reported 108 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, yesterday, and one new death in Collier County. The total number of cases in Charlotte County has now hit the 500 cases mark.
Even as the number of positive COVID-19 test results in Florida has increased over the last week, the state’s overall rate of positive tests has remained relatively low, in the single digits.
The positivity rate tells us how many COVID-19 tests were given in a day, divided by how many people tested positive that day.On April 26, Florida’s positivity rate was at 6.1 percent. It’s fluctuated, but hasn’t been that high since.
Bindu Mayi, a microbiology professor at Nova Southeastern University, says the rate’s drop isn’t surprising.
“Because of the lockdown measures because of the social isolation because of all the messages that we’ve been putting out there about prevention,” Mayi said.
Meanwhile, Cindy Prins says what we don’t know is who’s getting tested. She’s an epidemiology professor at the University of Florida.
“Are we talking about people who are being tested because they have symptoms? Are we talking about people who are being tested because now all of sudden they have access, and they can go through the drive through testing, and find out whether or not they’re positive, even though they don’t have symptoms,” Prins said.
It also matters whether these are positive tests coming from a high-risk population, like inmates in a prison.
But when more low-risk people in the general public get tested, they’re likely to test negative. And that brings the positivity rate down.
NSU’s Mayi hopes people don’t get too comfortable.
“The virus is still there, the virus is still in circulation,” Mayi said.
She says wearing masks and washing one’s hands remain as important as ever.
The U.S. Senate's top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, is calling on the U.S. Department of Labor's inspector general to investigate Florida's struggling unemployment system. The AP reports, Schumer is calling on the Department of Labor to investigate why it's taking so long for the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity to disperse benefits to out-of-work Floridians.
In a letter to the Inspector General, Sen. Schumer says Florida has only paid out to 28 percent of the two million Florida residents who've applied for benefits. However, state officials say more than 90 percent of the 1.3 million eligible claimants have been paid. That data does not include nearly 500,000 people who had initially been deemed ineligible.
Emergency managers said, Monday, that this year’s hurricane season needs to be approached differently as COVID-19 continues to spread. Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Pete Gaynor, spoke, Monday, at the Miami-Dade Emergency Operations Center.
“It's hard enough in a regular hurricane to do evacuations, mass care and sheltering. This year it's going to be more complicated. You need more time. You need more plans,” said Gaynor. Gaynor said enhanced hurricane season preparations this year mean increasing emergency food stocks from a three-day supply to a seven-day supply.
“If you are in a zone that you have to evacuate, historically evacuate, do you have all the COVID-19 hygiene supplies that you may need if you had to go to a shelter? Make sure you have all those things in your kit; things like masks and hand sanitizers,” said Gaynor.
Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez said the number of shelters in the South Florida county has been increased to 81 to provide enough room for up to 112,000 evacuees.
“This year we have expanded our capacity at evacuation centers to give people more space. We're doubling our space to about 40 square feet per person, up from 20 square feet per person due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Gimenez.
He said masks, gloves and hand sanitizer will be provided to everyone staying at Miami-Dade shelters.
Gov. Ron DeSantis said hotels may be used in some places as shelters to provide room for social distancing. This year’s hurricane season has already gotten off to a quick start with three named storms. The season runs through November and has been forecast to be unusually busy.
Florida’s public university governing board is doling out millions of dollars in bonuses to schools in the state’s public university system. The performance-based funding structure is based on metrics including student graduation rates, student retention and cost per degree.
However, with school letting out early in the Spring, and questions around how many students will come back for the fall, the universities could end up getting penalized next year.
“This year I’m not so sure how any of the data is going to look because it’s kind of an anomaly,” said Florida A&M University President Larry Robinson.
Florida’s public universities are already forming their reopening plans, with ideas such as moving more classes online, limiting the number of classes conducted in person and finding ways to space students out in dorms. The schools are planning for state budget cuts and the potential for COVID-19 related enrollment declines.
