Coronavirus: Florida cases crack 100 as officials expect even more with testing expanding
With 39 new cases reported early Sunday, the number of novel coronavirus cases in Florida is now over 100 as test kits are being distributed across the state, and officials said the number of people diagnosed positive will continue to increase sharply.
South Florida — with three international airports, busy cargo and passenger shipping ports, and a large concentration of elderly — continues to be the epicenter of that growth with more than half of all positive cases diagnosed so far.
Broward County alone has 36 cases, including a group of young people from NOVA Southeastern University who all traveled as a group to Ireland, and exposed their relatives to the virus.
"NOVA did a good job getting them isolated," DeSantis said, noting that the World Health Organization on Saturday called Europe the new epicenter of the pandemic.
On Sunday, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that the state was partnering with the The Florida National Guard and Memorial Healthcare to start mobile drive-through testing in Broward. Close to 175 guards were deployed Sunday with another several hundred on the way, he said, adding that they could probably partner with other hospitals in South Florida.
He also said he's asked the Department of Health for as much "amplifying information" as possible regarding COVID-19 tests to see more details on clusters within counties.
"This is a situation that has continued to evolve rapidly," he told reporters gathered for a news conference Sunday evening at the state's emergency operations center in Tallahassee.
The state also reported its fourth death, a 77-year-old Lee County man related to a woman who tested positive after she died.
DeSantis and other state health officials reiterated the need for "social distancing." He mentioned that he was not shutting down bars and restaurants or imposing curfews as Ohio and Illinois have done.
But he has asked Halsey Beshears, director of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation and Division of Emergency Management Director Jared Moskowitz to look into what they can do to issue "distancing guidance."
He understood college students had a need to have fun, adding that he was there himself once and might have thought himself indestructible.
"But Florida is not going to be the place where you’re out till 2 a.m. with 500 people at some bar," DeSantis said.
Instead, college students have an opportunity to be heroes by avoiding situations where they might contract the virus and spread it to others.
"Missing out drinking at a bar is not end of world,” he said. "You don't want to be in a position where you contributed to the spread of the infection."
He lauded Broward and Miami-Dade officials for imposing curfews and other restrictions on bars and closing beaches after seeing photos of throngs of spring breakers carousing.
"The best thing we can do is avoid crowds," Florida Surgeon General Scott Rivkees said.
Precautionary measures to mitigate and contain the spread of the virus that causes the deadly COVID-19 illness is critical now, officials said, especially in light of comments made Saturday by Dr. Anthony Fauci of the President's Coronavirus Task Force that the disease will peak in 6-8 weeks.
On NBC's Meet the Press Sunday, Fauci said "Americans are going to have to hunker down significantly more than we as a country are doing."
Fauci also said the country should take more extreme measures to slow the spread of the disease. "I would prefer as much as we possibly could. I think we should really be overly aggressive and get criticized for overreacting," he said.
The U.S. has more than 3,200 reported cases and 62 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.
So far, 115 cases have reported in Florida, including 7 Floridians sequestered out of state and the nine non-residents tested in-state. The state also saw a big uptick in the number tested, from just under 500 to more than 1,200 with 678 negative and 454 pending. Also, 410 people were being monitored.
DeSantis has activated the state Emergency Operations Center to its highest level to help marshal resources and coordinate state agencies.
Also, after a week of denying there was community spread – people testing positive for the virus but who had no history of international travel – DeSantis conceded that it is now evident to some degree. But he said most of the cases appear travel-related, and said he’d ask the White House about restricting flights into Florida.
The youngest positive case so far is a 17-year-old from Cuba who is now in Hillsborough County.
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North Florida sees rise in cases
The number of cases in North Florida is growing, too. Two new cases were reported by Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry on Twitter Saturday night, bringing the total in Duval County to four. Curry said state health officials told him they expect more positive results today. State health officials don't list ages for three Duval cases.
New cases were reported in Baker, Clay, St. Johns and Alachua counties, as well.
Several new cases emerged in Central Florida, including a TSA workerr at Orlando International Airport, WFTV in Orlando first reported.
The number of non-Florida residents infected is growing as well. Two of the new cases include a Connecticut woman in Baker County and a New York woman in Alachua County. That brings the number of non-Florida residents to nine.
DeSantis also has asked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to release 61 Florida residents who were previously aboard the Grand Princess voyage outside of California from Dobbins Air Force Base in Georgia.
The governor Saturday ordered all nursing homes to bar visitors for 30 days. He also extended all nursing home licenses for 90 days and 30 days for other group home facilities so that staff would not “be distracted” during the crisis.
Following federal guidelines, the state has recommended the cancellation of all events of more than 250 people. Universities, colleges and public schools have closed. Cruise lines have announced they are suspending voyages and tourist attractions are shutting down. Broward and Miami-Dade ordered a shutdown of its beaches.
But some events are not canceled.
"That doesn't mean you have to go," Moskowitz said.
Moskowitz said his division was working with other agencies to buy ventilators and gowns for healthcare workers, and ventilators for patients in the event of a surge.
The state has received 1,000 of 2,500 new test kits from Integrated DNA Testing, an Iowa firm that contracted with the CDC to provide test kits after CDC's in-house kits were found to give faulty results. Half the kits went to Florida hospitals and the other half went to local health departments, DeSantis said.
Another shipment of test kits was expected Sunday.
As the number of diagnosed cases grows, so does the number of cases that are still under investigation. That's because the private labs that have been enlisted to help with the load can only test patients, officials said. Once they get a positive result, they deliver that to the Department of Health to conduct the epidemiological investigation.
More people will be needed to process the results, so DeSantis has directed the Department of Health to hire additional epidemiologists from university health programs to help with workload.
He's also enlisting the aid of CVS, Walgreens and Wal-Mart to help collect samples for testing.
At a White House news conference Sunday afternoon, Vice President Mike Pence said that high-speed tests are being developed for quick turn-around by a public-private partnership. Testing will be prioritized for health care workers, then first responders, and then the elderly and most vulnerable.
Contact Jeff Schweers at jschweers@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @jeffschweers.
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