State health officials reported 67 new COVID-19 cases, Wednesday, bringing Florida's total to 706,516 cases. The Florida Department of Health also reported six new coronavirus-related deaths, Sept. 30, increasing the statewide total to 14,488 fatalities.
Of the 5,308,344 COVID-19 tests that have been performed in Florida so far, the overall positivity rate stands at 13.31%. The latest single-day positivity rate has increased to 5.02%.
Here in the Southwest Florida region including Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendy, Lee, Manatee and Sarasota Counties, state health officials reported 148 new cases of the virus Wednesday for a total of 58,735 cases.
There were also seven new coronavirus-related deaths reported in the Southwest Florida region Sept. 30, including three new fatalities in Collier County, two new deaths in Sarasota County and one new fatality each in Manatee and Lee Counties for a total of 1,420 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
An elementary school classroom at a school in Fort Myers is under quarantine due to positive cases of COVID-19. The News-Press reports the 14-day quarantine was issued for a classroom at Villas Elementary School in the Lee County School District.
The district has not released details such as the number of students and staff involved or the grade level of the impacted classroom.
The classroom has been sanitized and deep cleaned. Starting Sept. 30, students under the quarantine shifted from in-person instruction to the Lee Home Connect model, which involves students logging in from home to live virtual instruction with an educator from their school.
The only other classroom closure in the Lee County School District, so far, was a class at Gateway Elementary School that went into a two-week quarantine on Sept. 10.
Employees of Lee Health will face reduced benefits and a salary freeze in 2021 as the health system faces a $20 million shortfall stemming from the coronavirus pandemic.
The salary freeze will impact all of Lee Health's 13,500 employees. The News-Press reports this is the first time in nine years that the health system has put a moratorium on employee raises, which usually average 3% each year.
Lee Health's match for employee retirement plans will also decline from 5% to 4%. Health coverage premiums and copays will also increase. The health system has canceled all of its capital projects aside from the current expansion of Gulf Coast Medical Center, which is expected to be complete next year.
Lee Health officials say an anticipated $78 million from the federal CARES Act is helping the health system avoid more austere cutbacks.
Hospitals across the state have treated more than 43,000 COVID-19 patients since the start of the pandemic, including more than 2,700 patients in Lee County alone.
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ order lifting coronavirus restrictions on businesses provides them with more freedom to operate at full capacity. But mask orders are still in place and some businesses will continue to balance fully opening with the need to protect employees and customers.
Those who serve people with health conditions that make COVID-19 deadlier know that to keep their businesses, they will have to gain trust.
At a SuperCuts in Oldsmar, store manager Marissa Segallos says a monthly visit to the salon is the only outing for some of her clients.
“I have a client tomorrow morning. She's coming with her husband and her husband has a lot of health problems, so if she feels sick even a little bit, she has a house in the back of her house, like they are doing social distancing themselves,” Segallos said. “So they are coming in early so they can avoid everyone else and leave quickly.”
Like other salons, SuperCuts has safety guidelines. Until the governor's order last week, the chain required online appointments and closed its lobbies, meaning customers waited outside or in their vehicles.
Now, walk-ins are accepted and customers can wait inside for their turn. But employees and clients still must wear a mask and extra cleaning takes place between appointments.
Joanna Patterson owns the Oldsmar SuperCuts and 11 other locations in the Tampa Bay area. The salons reopened in May after being ordered to close for about a month.
“We're very thankful that we're open for business right now,” Patterson said. “And so we're just hoping that there won't be another round of closures because it can be devastating. Because we didn't know how long we were going to be closed. We don't know how long this pandemic is going to last.”
Small-business owners like Patterson traditionally wear many hats, and the coronavirus pandemic has added a few more. Now, some play the role of public health enforcers, ensuring all customers are wearing masks. If an employee gets sick, they may have to do some contact tracing to determine who else may have been exposed. Some owners may even require temperature checks at the door, and most have become experts in cleaning products that kill the coronavirus.
Beth Milito, an attorney for the National Federation of Independent Business, said she often hears from nervous bosses, especially when an employee tests positive for COVID-19. She starts by calming them down.
“Don't panic. This is not, you know, the end of the world. Because sometimes I hear this panic: ‘Do we have to shut down for a week?’ No, no, no,” Milito said.
Milito suggests businesses put a plan in place to notify employees and customers who came in contact with the infected person.
She says employers worry about violating health privacy laws like HIPAA. But in general, the law only applies to health care providers and the businesses associated with them - not other employers. Still, other laws do protect an employee's health information, so Milito says privacy is key.
“Unless you have the employee who tested positive permission to share their name, you don't divulge who it was,” Milito said. “You don't say ‘Beth Milito tested positive.’ Instead, it's, ‘Unfortunately, we've had an employee who tested positive so we're identifying everyone who's been in contact.’”
And then there’s always the risk a business could get sued - by employees or customers.
It would be hard to prove where a customer who ventured out into the community came in contact with the coronavirus, said Kevin Johnson, a labor and employment attorney for Johnson Jackson PLLC in Tampa.
As for employees, Johnson said owners are generally protected by the workers' compensation system.
“It takes a lot for an employee to break a claim out of that workers' comp system and bring it in a regular court,” Johnson said. “You pretty much have to show that an employer was almost intentionally trying to injure you - was operating in the face of a very known risk and was very reckless in how they approached it.”
Johnson says the best thing employers can do is stay informed. Read government recommendations on websites like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The bottom line for SuperCuts owner Patterson is her customers have to feel safe.
“The clients have to understand that we are doing everything possible in order to keep them and their families safe,” she said.
Otherwise, no matter what the state rules are, customers worried about COVID-19 will take their business elsewhere.
The American Medical Association is the latest group to join the call urging everyone 6-months and older to get a flu shot this year. The organization said the need for people to get vaccinated is “greater than ever.”The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is also urging flu shots in an effort to avoid what some are calling a “twin-demic.” Health officials say it’s not clear yet how the coronavirus pandemic and flu season could impact one another, but they say decreasing the number of people who get sick with the flu could help keep more medical resources available for COVID-19 patients.Flu shots are available at pharmacies, physicians’ offices and clinics. In August, the CDC recommended that people get age-appropriate vaccinations by the end of October.
In another major sign of how COVID-19 has damaged Florida’s tourism industry, about 6,700 layoffs are expected to hit non-union workers at Walt Disney World starting Dec. 4. Disney employs about 77,000 people in Florida.
During a virtual meeting of the Enterprise Florida Board of Directors, Wednesday, State Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis said the layoffs could have been worse. A day after the Walt Disney Company announced plans to lay off 28,000 employees in the U.S. due to prolonged closures at parks in California and limited attendance in Florida, Patronis praised the state’s economic reopening efforts.
“Thank goodness that the amusement parks and the destinations that we have got in this state are making the necessary tough decisions and commitments,” said Patronis.
“I can’t imagine how much worse it would have been for Disney if Gov. DeSantis had not encouraged and supported the opening of those parks.”
As part of his second phase of Florida’s reopening plan, DeSantis allowed theme parks to reopen in June.
He later encouraged the parks to increase their daily attendance after a summer surge in COVID-19 cases started to slow.
Last Friday, DeSantis signed an executive order lifting restrictions on businesses such as restaurants and bars. DeSantis and Patronis also have said the economic recovery could be aided by providing COVID-19 liability protections to businesses.
WGCU is your trusted source for news and information in Southwest Florida. We are a nonprofit public service, and your support is more critical than ever. Keep public media strong and donate now. Thank you.
