State Health officials, Thursday, reported a new record high number of COVID-19 cases documented in a single day since the pandemic began.
The Florida Department of Health reported 3,207 new cases of the virus, June 18, bringing the statewide total to 85,926 cases.
State health officials also reported 43 new coronavirus-related deaths, Thursday, increasing the statewide death toll to 3,061 fatalities including 1,612 deaths in long-term care facilities.
Of the 1,512,315 tests that have been performed in the state so far, 5.7% have been positive for the virus. Florida's positivity rate has continued to increase throughout the week. Prior to the current spike in cases, the state’s positivity rate had been on the decline.
Here in the Southwest Florida region including Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry, Lee, Manatee and Sarasota Counties, state health officials reported 317 new cases of the virus, Thursday, and eight new deaths including five new fatalities in Manatee County and one new death each in Charlotte, Collier and Lee Counties.
Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration is reporting that fewer than one in four Intensive Care Unit beds is still available statewide.
The potential shortage of ICU beds is especially risky for people 65 and older, who are most likely to require intensive care treatment if they contract the coronavirus.
Florida now has the highest number of COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic, with more than half of known cases in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe Counties.
Meanwhile, New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he’s considering ordering a quarantine for travelers coming to New York from Florida. The possibility comes several months after Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis imposed a similar order here for travelers coming from New York.
According to an updated model by PolicyLab at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Florida has the potential to be the next epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic.
The projections point to the rising number of cases in Hillsborough County and surrounding areas over the past few weeks.
“After Hillsborough started to really go up, over the last week or two we’ve now really seen a dramatic migration of this epidemic across the state to Orlando and up and down the east coast,” said Dr. David Rubin, a researcher at PolicyLab.
He said the elevated risks are demonstrated, not only by their projections, but by the rise in case counts and hospitalizations in the area.
The Tampa Bay area set a new daily record Thursday, with 711 more people testing positive within 24 hours. The increase is 160 more than the record high posted Wednesday.
At a press conference Tuesday, Governor Ron DeSantis blamed the surge in positive cases on the increased testing happening across the state. But Rubin says their forecasts account for that.
“Our goal has always been to reopen communities, but to reopen them safely,” he said, “Communities need to be guided by regularly changing forecasts that could allow them to have an honest conversation with their leaders and among community members about the ways they can adopt routines in order to safely manage transmission.”
Hillsborough County Administrator Mike Merrill said the increase in cases is not a surprise, but the change in demographic -- from the elderly to young adults -- is.
In recent days, the average age for positive coronavirus cases has dropped from over 65 to between 25 and 34.
“The problem is that as younger people circulate more in the community. Now the greater chance of infection begins to affect our workforce,” Merrill said. “It has a greater influence on those who are in their most productive income years, those who are driving our economy.”
This week, both St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman and Tampa Mayor Jane Castor mandated that all employees within the city limits wear masks while working with the public.
Kriseman said he is also pursuing another order that would require all residents wear masks while in public, and a similar measure is under consideration in Hillsborough County.
Rubin said the entire state of Florida should adopt this policy, since wearing masks in indoor locations is the best way to slow down the spread of the virus.
“I think we've seen enough in Texas, Arizona, and Florida to know that this can't be voluntary,” he said. “That the wearing of masks in indoor crowded locations where those transmission events occur the most protects those individuals and consumers that are in there, the people behind the cash register who don't have the choice on how to protect themselves.”
“And then most especially in a place like Florida, protects the traveler and the community that person is traveling through.”
He said that although it may feel like an infringement on our personal freedoms at times, wearing masks is the trade-off for reopening until we “get that vaccine that we’re all hoping for later this fall.”
The former Florida Department of Health data scientist who built her own COVID-19 dashboard says she will keep the independent website up and running as long as she can afford to.
Rebekah Jones said she was fired after she refused to manipulate data in the state’s dashboard to make the case for reopening Florida’s economy. Jones claims her supervisors didn’t like a tool she built in the state’s dashboard that drew attention to the fact that the vast majority of Florida counties didn’t meet the state’s own criteria to continue reopening.
“The thing I put my foot down on was going into the actual data and changing numbers so that those counties, mostly rural counties, would meet the criteria to reopen when they didn’t,” said Jones.
She raised more than $170,000 through an online GoFundMe campaign to launch her own dashboard.
She said the decisions being made by state officials are not supported by its own data. A spokesperson for Gov. DeSantis said "exhibited a repeated course of insubordination during her time with the department.”
86,000 people in Florida applied for new jobless benefits last week marking the lowest number since the economic shutdown began.
The AP reports, that’s a drop of nearly 30% from the previous week and a drop of 80% since mid-April when 500,000 claims were filed.
Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez said Thursday he’s issuing a new emergency order cracking down on businesses that fail to follow social distancing guidelines. Miami-Dade, and all of Florida, have seen cases climb sharply following the reopening.
“The reopening has been vital for our economy and everyone's mental and physical health,” said Gimenez. “We are not going back. We're going to get tough.”
Gimenez said he was troubled by social media posts showing businesses that followed the guidelines being bullied by customers who didn’t want to stick to the rules.
“Just because we're all getting a little stir crazy, adjusting to the new normal does not mean that we can start breaking rules,” said Gimenez.
“So Miami Dade, your education period is over. No more warnings. From now on, we see a violation. We close a business immediately. No more no more subtle reminders.”
Gimenez said businesses that violate guidelines will be shut down and that before they’ll be permitted to reopen, they’ll need to file a plan including steps they’ll take to comply.
Florida could take the step of closing schools during the state's primary election in August and during the November presidential election under an executive order issued this week by Gov. DeSantis.
The AP reports, DeSantis said he is also encouraging state workers to staff voting precincts. The actions are meant to provide more flexibility to local election officials in the state.
County election supervisors concerned that the COVID-19 pandemic could pose challenges during this year's key elections say the governor's order falls short of expectations. They were hoping for consolidated voting sites and have been calling on DeSantis to allow voting to begin sooner so they could start tallying absentee ballots earlier.
Members of the state's Suicide Prevention Coordinating Council say the pandemic will likely increase how many people will die this year. The group is drafting recommendations to help people in crisis.
In 2018, more than 3,000 Floridians died by suicide. Now, in 2020, that number is more than 1,000 so far. Jane Bennett, with the Florida Suicide Prevention Coalition, is recommending the state use technology to reach people who might need help. Bennett says there needs to be a better effort to educate people on how to access mental health services.
"I know a lot of people that I've been coming across have said that they've been looking on YouTube for resources and explanation of what's the process," Bennett says.
Bennett sits on Florida's Suicide Prevention Coordinating Council. Another member is Florida Department of Children and Families Secretary Rodney Moore. He says people shouldn't have to jump through hoops to find help.
"You know people are fearful. Some people are hopeless because they lost jobs, they've lost the ability to support their families. We need to develop opportunities to make our services more readily available," Moore says.
The question of how to do that wasn't immediately answered. The Suicide Prevention Coordinating Council has not yet released any official recommendations. The link to the council's report from last year can be found here.
