Nikki Fried announces moment of silence for COVID-19 victims

Image via Colin Hackley.

Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried will hold a statewide moment of silence Wednesday for Floridians who have died from COVID-19.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that 44,553 Floridians have died with COVID-19 as of Monday, a rate of 207 per 100,000 residents.

“I invite all of my fellow Floridians to join me for this moment of silence honoring the memory of the nearly 45,000 lives lost across our state due to COVID-19,” Fried said. “No matter where you are or what you’re doing, we can all come together to pause and observe a moment of reflection and remembrance, uniting as a state to pay our respects to the victims of this virus.”

Fried, the only Democrat to win a statewide election since 2012, is a candidate for Governor hoping to deny Gov. Ron DeSantis a second term. Late last month, she began hosting frequent COVID-19 briefings, citing a “void” of data from the DeSantis administration.

The Florida Health Department stopped releasing COVID-19 data daily in June, when the positivity rate decreased below 5%. While cases have spiked in Florida since the delta variant took hold this summer and the positivity rate has topped 20% as recently as two weeks ago, the DeSantis administration still only releases data weekly. The Health Department still sends daily data to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The number of people dying of COVID-19 in Florida worsened last week as the state set another record Friday. That week’s report tallied 1,727 new deaths acknowledged since the week before. With that report, Florida has averaged reporting more than 200 new COVID-19 deaths per day over a three-week stretch of August — the worst period of mortality seen in the Sunshine State’s entire 18-month coronavirus pandemic.

That level also means that in recent weeks COVID-19 might be the leading cause of death in Florida.

After another COVID-19 update and press conference, Fried will hold the moment of silence at 11:45 a.m. in the Capitol. Both events will be livestreamed on the Agriculture Department’s Facebook page.