Scott Powers
Florida’s COVID-19 outbreak continues to mount, with news Sunday morning that the state now has 830 confirmed cases and 13 deaths.
That’s an increase of 67 cases and another death overnight since Saturday night’s report from the Florida Department of Health.
The latest totals, posted by the Department of Health at 11 a.m., show that there now are 768 Florida residents and 62 non-Florida residents who have tested positive for infection by the new coronavirus.
South Florida continues to be the epicenter of the Sunshine State’s outbreak, with 180 cases in Broward County, 177 in Miami-Dade County, and 59 cases in Palm Beach County.
Hillsborough County now has 50 confirmed cases, the most in the state outside of South Florida. Duvall County has 37 cases; Pinellas County, 30 cases; Orange and Alachua counties, 29 each; Collier County, 28 cases; and Osceola County, 22 cases.
Yet testing in most of those counties continues to lag behind South Florida, where limited mass testing is under way, though testing is ramping up in the other metropolitan areas. Just over 800 people have been tested in Hillsborough, and just over 500 in Orange and Alachua. Broward and Miami-Dade each have seen more than 1,500 tests so far,
Florida health officials now have conducted 9,783 tests, and gotten 830 confirmed cases out of that. Another 7,990 tests came back negative, while 963 tests are awaiting results.
The new numbers come as the state has focused efforts to increase testing, 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. He also issued orders closing various public gathering places.
One comment
Colleen
March 22, 2020 at 1:23 pm
Social distancing is great if you don’t have to work with the public. Gas stations are very vulnerable. Especially large ones. Everyone touches the gas pumps and doors and then there’s the exchange of money. Unless you stand at the pumps and doors and coffee stations all day and sanitized the virus will still spread. If you don’t have symptoms, you might still be a carrier. And not EVERYONE is washing their hands before or after using the pumps, doors, money etc.
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