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MIAMI (WSVN) - Though Florida’s governor touted the positive progress made in containing the coronavirus pandemic during a stop in South Florida, he and other local leaders are advising the public to continue adhering to guidelines.
Gov. Ron DeSantis held a roundtable discussion at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Friday, where he gave an update on the state’s virus response.
“If you go back six weeks and look at to where we are at now, I mean, we’ve had really strong, durable declines in almost every indicator,” he said. “The number of COVID positive patients who are hospitalized in the ICU [intensive care unit] is down 49% from the July peak. The number of COVID positive patients just hospitalized generally is down 54% from the peak. In Broward, the number of COVID positive patients hospitalized is down 57% from the July peak. In Miami-Dade, COVID positive hospitalizations are down 60%.”
The Florida Department of Health reported that the state topped 615,000 total COVID-19 cases on Friday, with 3,800 new infections statewide. As many as 661 cases were reported in Miami-Dade, 366 were reported in Broward and 10 cases were reported in Monroe.
“You’re seeing very good positive trends, and I think we’re going to see that in the state of Florida,” DeSantis said. “In Broward, the percentage of tests coming back positive has ranged between 4.2% and 5.93%. That’s down significantly from where Broward was at the end of June and into July. Miami-Dade has had 7.6%, 7.7% the last three days. Miami was in the 20% just a month ago.”
With indoor dining returning to Miami-Dade on Monday, officials across South Florida are looking at rules for restaurants and other businesses.
“Feeling a little less pressure as we move forward,” Broward County Mayor Dale Holness said. “Broward Health is letting those traveling nurses go back home. Memorial Health will have traveling nurses stay in place until Aug. 31, Baptist Healthcare also, but all the hospitals have seen downward trends.”
Holness said the county is looking at enforcing fines for those caught not wearing a mask in some cases.
“It’s our number one complaint: people not wearing facial coverings in restaurants, and sometimes, it’s the employees,” he said. “We haven’t been doing much of that except for warning. Now, we’re going to look to fine some folks because we want to make sure that we’re not getting to where we see a surge again.”
Since the positivity rate keeps going down, Broward officials said they will consider relaxing some restrictions like closing beaches at sunset, but they won’t make any decisions until after Labor Day Weekend.
“We’ve got to see the trend continue to stay in place for a while before we do that,” Holness said. “Now, we’re hearing warnings that there could be a resurgence in September or October, and we want to make sure that we are in the best place if that were to occur, so we don’t see what we saw when we just reopened.”
Due to an increase in COVID-19 in the University of Miami community, the university has announced that students will not be allowed at the first two football games and alcohol will not be served.
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