State health officials reported 9,440 new cases of COVID-19, Tuesday, increasing Florida's total to 369,834 cases. The Florida Department of Health also reported 134 coronavirus-related deaths, yesterday, bringing the statewide death toll to 5,206 fatalities.
Tuesday marked the 28th consecutive day that Florida experienced a single-day increase of at least 5,000 new cases.
Nearly 310,000 cases, or 83% of Florida's total caseload, has been reported since phase two of Gov. Ron DeSantis' reopening plan went into effect June 5.
Of the more than three million COVID-19 tests that have been performed in Florida so far, 11.92% have been positive for the virus.
Health officials reported 517 new coronavirus-related hospitalizations, Tuesday, increasing the total to 21,780 hospitalizations since the pandemic began.
Here in the Southwest Florida region including Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry, Lee, Manatee and Sarasota Counties, state health officials reported 639 new cases, Tuesday for a total of 35,700 cases. The Southwest Florida region also saw 22 new deaths, yesterday, including 12 new deaths in Lee County, five new fatalities in Manatee, two new deaths in Collier and one new death each in Sarasota, Hendry and Glades Counties for a total of 725 deaths since the pandemic began.
During an emergency meeting, Tuesday, Collier County Commissioners passed a mandatory mask ordinance that takes effect immediately.
Commissioners reversed course from their vote last week against a mandatory face covering amid the ongoing surge in COVID-19 cases and voted in favor an ordinance requiring people to wear face coverings in businesses, non-profits and in most other public buildings in unincorporated portions of Collier County.The emergency ordinance passed on a 3-2 vote after Commissioner Penny Taylor reversed her decision from last week’s vote.
Commissioner Andy Solis and Commission Chair Burt Saunders again voted in favor of the ordinance and commissioners Donna Fiala and William McDaniel, Jr. maintained their opposition.The vote followed several hours of often impassioned public comment from people both for and against, including Collier County Democratic Party Chairwoman Annisa Karim, who urged commissioners to support the ordinance even it will be difficult to enforce.
“We have many policies that are extremely difficult to enforce, but these policies like ‘no littering, no speeding, no public urination,’ these policies set a standard for our community,” said Karim.
“So today, your ‘yes’ vote will signal to the county and the country that you respect science and that you care for your citizens.”
Enforcement of the ordinance falls primarily on businesses and on County Code Enforcement, which Commission Chair Burt Saunders said means enforcement will be largely complaint driven.
The order does include exceptions including inside restaurant customers while they are eating, gym patrons while working out and practicing social distancing, patrons of barber shops and salons under certain conditions and employees working in non-public portions of a business as long as they are practicing social distancing and are not preparing food.
The ordinance also does not apply to children under nine years old and specifically excludes places of worship.Among those who spoke out against the ordinance is owner and CEO of the retail business “It’s For The Birds,” Maryann Fitzpatrick.
“You expect me, a 64-year-old woman, working along, with no training and no backup to be your frontline, to physically prevent entry by any person not wearing a mask. You are placing me and hundreds like me in an untenable position,” said Fitzpatrick.
“As written, this ordinance contains criminal penalties if I am unwilling or unable to enforce it. I maintain you don’t have the right to force me to choose to become a criminal and risking serious injury. You don’t have the right to expect me, a shop owner, to assume the role of cop.”
The ordinance places enforcement responsibility on business owners, operators and employees with fines that could go up to $500 for multiple subsequent violations. Commissioner Taylor addressed Fitzpatrick’s public testimony by asking if local business owners could apply for reimbursement through the Federal CARES Act to cover the cost of security, should a business owner find it necessary.
County Manager Leo Ochs confirmed that the cost of security to enforce a mask ordinance falls under federal reimbursement costs businesses can apply for.
After passing the mask mandate, commissioners approved spending up to $25,000 on efforts to educate business owners about the new mandate and to provide them with signage to inform customers.
Commissioner William McDaniel, the only commissioner physically present at the meeting who was not wearing a mask, attempted to delay the vote further, citing what he says is a lack of data.
“I would suggest that we continue this item. We come back next week, deploy our staff, get a report to our county attorney with regard to the legality of such, get a report from our staff in regard to the case counts, the hospitalizations and the fatalities from the communities in Florida that have already had face masks in for quite some time.”
But Commission Chair Saunders said evidence of the efficacy of masks in slowing community spread of the virus is clear.“I think one of the things we can do is learn from the experience of other countries that began wearing masks very early on and have been able to suppress the spread of this virus, they’ve been able to open their economies much more effectively,” said Saunders.
“So I think one of the things that we’ve learned is that wearing a mask, it’s an inconvenience, but it’s one that in the long run, potentially, could slow the spread, stop the spread, and permit us to grow our economy much more quickly than if we simply let this virus continue to spread.”
Collier’s new mandatory mask ordinance only covers unincorporated portions of the county, but it does include an ‘opt in’ for Naples, Marco Island and Everglades City if approved by local officials in those municipalities.
The ordinance sunsets at midnight Sept. 3, unless commissioners decide to extend it further.
Collier’s mask ordinance comes as major retailers including Publix, Walmart, the Kroger Co., Kohls and others have begun to adopt their own mandatory face covering policies for customers.
Fort Myers City Council members voted down a proposed resolution, Monday, to encourage businesses to require employees to wear masks.
The News-Press reports, after voting down a mandatory mask ordinance in a special meeting nearly two weeks ago, the city council instructed the city attorney to draft the failed resolution.
It's unclear if city leaders will revisit the issue going forward. The Cape Coral City Council previously rejected a mandatory mask proposal while Sanibel Island and Fort Myers Beach have adopted mask requirements for people while in public.
Venice City Council members, Tuesday, unanimously approved a resolution in support of people wearing face coverings in public.
The Herald Tribune reports, in a separate vote, city council members directed staff to draft a mandatory mask ordinance that they could consider as soon as next week.
Enforcement issues in the proposed ordinance still need to be hammered out. One possibility would be to have the city's code enforcement board handle mask violations. Another enforcement possibility would involve the creation of a special magistrate process, similar to how mandatory mask ordinance violations are handled in the city of Sarasota and the town of Longboat Key.
Despite reports of ICU beds filling up in some hospitals, Gov. DeSantis says Florida’s Healthcare system is in good shape.
“You’ve heard different things about no ICU beds here or there, and I think it’s important to kind of explain how some of this works,” said DeSantis.
“So, the big picture item is this morning’s census is that statewide 24% of the hospital beds in the state of Florida are empty," DeSantis said. "That’s over 14,000 hospital beds and about 20% of the ICU beds are empty and that’s over 1,000 ICU beds.”
During a roundtable discussion, Tuesday, DeSantis pointed out some of the ICU beds are being used by patients who have not tested positive for COVID-19.
Health officials who joined the roundtable say they saw a decrease in people coming in which has now led to worse health conditions. Advent Senior Vice President of Ambulatory Services for the Central Florida Division Scott Brady explained.
“In March and April, we saw a decrease in heart attacks and strokes significantly and the question what’s going on? And then as folks started coming in they started coming in in a more serious state having to stay longer and their condition has been worse,” said Brady.
Brady said those not coming in are probably just fearful of getting COVID-19 from patients that are in the hospital. But he assures that all patients with the coronavirus have their own section allowing other patients to not have to share a space with them
Meanwhile, Lee Health's four acute-care hospitals are now at 100% capacity, according to Lee Health President and CEO Dr. Larry Antonucci. The News press reports that while the hospitals occasionally reach full capacity during the high season in the winter and spring, growing numbers of COVID-19 cases have strained the health system's staffing and medical supplies.
About a quarter of Lee Health's inpatients now have COVID-19 as a primary or secondary diagnosis.
Legislation passed by Congress this week would give death benefits to families of first responders that die from COVID-19.
The Safeguarding America’s First Responders Act would grant federal death or disability benefits to law enforcement officers, firefighters and EMTs that contract the coronavirus, in the same way as if they were otherwise killed or injured in the line of duty.
Currently, families must prove a first responder contracted COVID-19 while on the job. The legislation would establish a presumption that the officer contracted the disease while on duty.
Florida’s Ashley Moody was part of a bipartisan group of attorneys general lobbying federal lawmakers to pass the bill.
“We have lost at least four, right here in Florida, already to this horrific disease. We want their families to have access to those benefits, and when they die in the line of duty as a result of COVID, they don’t have to jump through a ton of red tape,” said Moody.
The legislation now goes to President Donald Trump for his signature.
This week the Bahamas is closing its doors to American tourists in an effort to keep the new coronavirus from spreading on its islands. But the decision is based not just on the explosion of COVID-19 cases in the United States – but a sudden spike in the Bahamas too.
Starting Wednesday, the Bahamas will — for the time being — ban commercial flights and ships from the U.S. and most other countries except Canada, Britain and the European Union.
Prime Minister Hubert Minnis said because COVID-19 is still raging in the U.S., the Bahamas had to reverse its earlier decision to open up again. Most of the 5.5 million tourists who visit the Bahamas each year are from the U.S., especially Florida.
"Our current situation demands decisive action if we are to avoid being overrun and being defeated by this virus," Minnis said on Sunday.
The Bahamas does have reason to worry about the pandemic getting worse there. The country’s population is fewer than 400,000; and it’s recorded fewer than 200 coronavirus cases and only 11 deaths. Still, more than a quarter of those cases have emerged just since last Saturday.
As a result, the Bahamian government has now ordered a two-week lockdown for the country’s largest island, Grand Bahama, starting Thursday.
Private planes and boats may still come to the Bahamas from the U.S., but passengers must have proof of a negative COVID-19 test from a lab.
The Republican National Committee has outlined its agenda for a shrunken down Republican Convention in Jacksonville next month. The AP reports, President Trump is slated to be officially renominated in Charlotte, NC before the convention comes to Florida August 24-27. Last week the RNC announced that only delegates to the convention will be permitted to attend the first three nights of the convention.
Florida will continue gaining residents over the next several years, but growth will be slow due to the coronavirus pandemic. The AP reports, state demographers with Florida's Demographic Estimating Conference said last week they’re reducing population projections for 2025 by more than 200,000 people due to impacts of COVID-19.
They estimate Florida will have 22.9 million residents by April 1, 2025, which is up from this year's current estimate of 21.5 million people.
State demographers also predict the size of households will increase, with more relatives moving in with each other during tough economic times, leading to fewer overall households in Florida.
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