Staff Reports
With increased testing around the state in recent days, the expected surge in positive tests for coronavirus registered Saturday morning.
The 11 a.m. report from Florida’s Department of Health registered more grim milestones, including two new deaths in Broward and Duval Counties, bringing the statewide total to 12.
Total cases are up to 658, from 563 on Friday evening.
The hotbeds for the virus are still urban areas in South Florida.
Broward County has 128 cases, with 246 pending tests likely to boost that number.
Dade has 142 cases, but only 91 pending tests.
Palm Beach, meanwhile, has just 45 cases. But that number is good for third in the state for now.
Other urban areas are relatively better off.
Hillsborough, Orange, and Duval Counties have fewer diagnosed cases: 32, 23, and 17 respectively.
The new numbers come at a time when testing has ramped up, along with state restrictions on commerce and movement.
The Governor issued four executive orders Friday, reinforcing social distancing measures to “flatten the curve” of new infections.
One Executive Order closed restaurant dining rooms and gyms for the duration of the state’s state of emergency, currently slated to expire May 8.
In the order, DeSantis pointed to a need for “social distancing” to try to prevent the spread of the highly contagious and deadly virus known as COVID-19.
“I am committed to supporting retailers, restaurants and their employees as they pursue creative business practices that safely serve consumers during this temporary period of social distancing and … as governor, I am responsible for meeting the dangers presented to this state and its people by this emergency,” part of the order said.
The announcement will affect a huge part of Florida’s economy and workforce. It will last as long as Florida is in a state of emergency, which DeSantis declared March 9. The state Department of Business and Professional Regulation will have enforcement power.
Also mandated: “closures of gymnasiums and fitness centers within the State of Florida” and a temporary halt on elective surgeries.
DeSantis also closed beaches and more in two hard-hit South Florida counties.
The Governor has also directed all movie theaters, concert houses, auditoriums, playhouses, bowling alleys, arcades, gymnasiums, fitness studios and beaches to close in Broward County and Palm Beach County. It will remain in effect until the state of emergency ends.
The next report from the Florida Department of Health drops at 6 p.m.
One comment
Christopher Kennard
March 21, 2020 at 1:53 pm
There are people scattered across the face of Florida who have the coronavirus . . . folks like my wife and I in Marion County, besides a couple more people we know who have also contracted this virus (but no tests available to prove it, they say)and others in Alachua, Putnam, Sumter and Lake counties, I believe.
Why are people who reported ourselves to the local medical authorities not being county is beyond me to understand . . . unless they are hiding the fact so the coronavirus case load spreads throughout Florida and the rest of the country so Trump can “suspend” the 2020 election and declare himself President for four or more years.
Is this why the did not warm people in the USA and take immediate steps to protect us and our families in Florida and elsewhere around the country?
If so . . . and discovered . . . there will be an outcry akin to the national movement to remove “Tricky Dick” Nixon back during the Watergate conspiracy to steal our 1972 presidential election.
I am counting the days, weeks and perhaps months before the American people wake up and act to dump Trump and send him to prison for life.
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