State Health officials reported more than 2,000 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 for both Saturday and Sunday. Saturday's 2,581 new cases set a new record for highest number of new cases reported in a single day. The 2,016 cases reported by the Florida Department of Health, Sunday, brings the statewide total to 75,568 cases.
With the exception of last Monday, the number of new cases reported in Florida each day has been over 1,000 since June 3rd.
Governor Ron DeSantis said last week the spike could be a result of more widespread testing.
“The prisons, they’ll have big time population and they’ll test positive. So we made a decision about three weeks ago to have all the local county health go into these communities and test, test, test. So, you’re seeing part of it is that,” said DeSantis.
“Another part of it your seeing now is we’re almost done testing all residents and staff at long term care facilities."
DeSantis said testing is also more widely available at places like pharmacies and drive up sites, and often getting a test no longer requires a doctor’s note.
State health officials also report the total number of coronavirus-related deaths now stands at 2,931 fatalities. Of the 1,409,992 tests that have been performed in the state so far, 5.4 percent have been positive for the virus.
In the Southwest Florida region including Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry, Lee, Manatee and Sarasota Counties, state health officials reported 818 new cases of the virus over the weekend and 10 deaths including four new fatalities in Lee County, two deaths in Sarasota and one new death each in Charlotte, Collier, Hendry and Manatee Counties.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging people participating in events involving shouting, chanting or singing, to use cloth face coverings to lower the risk of spreading the coronavirus.
CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield said people must make sure to continue following guidelines.
“I know that people are eager to return to normal activities and ways of life. However, it’s important to remember this situation is unprecedented and the pandemic has not ended,” said Dr. Redfield.”
“It’s going to be critical to embrace the principles of social distancing and hygiene and wearing a face-covering in public.”
The CDC is also warning about additional challenges in the fall and winter when the seasonal flu could be circulating along with COVID-19.
Data from the Florida Department of Health indicates about 81 percent of the 320,771 people living or working in long-term care facilities in the state have been tested for COVID-19.
The Naples Daily News reports, the state health department recently shipped another 126,690 tests directly to facilities that say they can do the testing themselves.
State health officials say 3,300 long-term care facilities like nursing homes and assisted living facilities have been tested through on-site strike teams or through mailed kits. The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration reports there are about 3,800 nursing homes and assisted living facilities in the state.
The health department had been shipping out about 4,000 test kits per day, with the exception of Sundays and holidays. About 85 percent of COVID-19 deaths in Florida have been in people 65 and older. As of Sunday, 1,543 of Florida's coronavirus-related deaths have been associated with long-term care facilities, accounting for 52.6 percent of all COVID-19 deaths in the state.
The Cape Coral/Fort Myers metro area has one of the worst employment outlooks in the nation going into the third quarter of the year according to the latest Manpower Group report.
The News-Press reports, of the 7,700 employers surveyed across the country, 66 percent anticipate hiring levels to return to pre-pandemic levels by April of next year, and 42 percent by next month. The Manpower data shows the Cape Coral-Fort Myers area entering the third quarter in July in worse shape than it did the second quarter of the year, dropping to -4 percent. Miami’s -9 percent is about twice as bad as the Cape Coral Fort Myers metro area unemployment outlook.
Cities with positive hiring outlooks in Florida include Tampa, Jacksonville and Orlando.
The town of Immokalee has emerged as a hotspot for COVID-19 as numerous outbreaks in rural areas throughout the U.S. have recently spiked.
The largely farmworker town of about 25,000 people has seen the number of confirmed cases double in the past two weeks. The AP reports, Immokalee's caseload is heavier now than in Miami Beach and St. Petersburg, which are tourist hubs with much higher populations.
Testing has been expanded in Immokalee, but critics say it should have started much earlier, when the rest of the state was expanding testing.
More than 40,000 workers on cruise ships remain stuck at sea amid concerns about the coronavirus pandemic. The Miami Herald reports that at least 42,000 workers are still trapped on cruise ships and are not receiving paychecks.
Cruise lines halted trips in mid-March after several high-profile outbreaks on ships at sea including more than 600 people who fell ill aboard the Carnival cruise line's Diamond Princess as the ship was quarantined off the coast of Japan.
The CDC currently prohibits cruises in U.S. waters through July 24.
More than 300 people turned out for an All Lives Matter rally at Seed to Table Market in Naples on Saturday, and to express support for its owner, Alfie Oakes. The event was planned as a preemptive response to a protest that had been organized by a group called the Activist Protection League SWFL. That protest was focused on the store's owner, Alfie Oakes, whose recent Facebook posts have described the Black Lives Matter movement, and the coronavirus pandemic, as hoaxes.
About 100 people attended the Activist Protections League's protest, which began about an hour later and was immediately drenched by a downpour. There were moments of tension between the two groups, as one side chanted "Black Lives Matter" in unison, and the other stood just yards away holding signs saying things like "All Lives Matter" and "Support our President," with Collier County Sheriff’s Deputies standing between the groups. Shortly after the rain began most of the Seed to Table supporters dispersed, but the Black Lives Matter supporters continued protesting in the rain for several more hours.
The School District of Lee County announced Thursday morning that it will no longer do business with Oakes Farms in response to his recent remarks on social media.
Attorney General Ashley Moody is warning Floridians about a new scam targeting senior citizens. Crooks are using social media to offer fake COVID-19 grants to seniors who are staying home during the coronavirus pandemic.
Scam artists are hacking Facebook and other social media accounts and sending messages to victims from what appears to be a friend’s profile.
Those being scammed are then sent to a fraudulent website, purporting to be with the U.S. Treasury Department, where seniors are asked to enter personal information such as bank account numbers.
To make the scam seem legitimate, Moody said some seniors are even being tricked into filming cell phone videos to send to other friends.
“They are using other seniors to lure seniors to fall prey for this, as if others have done this and gotten all this grant money because they’ve isolated. That has not happened. This is a fraud,” said Moody.
While the original website has been shut down, Moody said she worries the criminals will just move on to another site to continue the scams. Moody said no governmental agency is offering anything to people, simply for staying home.
