Florida at center stage as cases soar
With sports, politics, focus of US is on state
TALLAHASSEE — The usual glare of the national spotlight that shines on Florida during an election year will grow even more intense in the next two months, as the Sunshine State plays host to several major political and sports events with nationwide interest amid a surge in coronavirus cases.
Gov. Ron DeSantis extended the state of emergency for the pandemic on Tuesday for another 60 days. In that time the NBA is scheduled to restart its season in Orlando; the Republican National Convention is slated to take place in Jacksonville; schools are supposed to open; a primary election will be held; and colleges will be back, perhaps with football on their campuses.
Two months ago when the state began to reopen, such events seemed relatively safe as Florida’s number of new COVID-19 cases remained relatively low. But now, the state has become a major hotspot, with 2,700 cases per 1 million in population over the first seven days in July, according to a New York Times analysis, second only to Arizona with 3,300 in that time.
Florida’s daily positivity rate has remained above 12 percent since June 26. The number of new cases detected Friday was 11,385, the second-highest daily total behind the 11,401 reported on July 3. Thursday’s death total of 120 is a state record; the 93 reported Friday is the second-most. The total deaths in Florida reached 4,203 through Friday.
“Every step we take forward it’s almost like we have to wait and
see, ‘is that a deadly step or an OK step?’” said Sen. Linda Stewart, D-Orlando.
Major League Soccer games resumed in Orlando this week, and Disney reopened its theme parks, even as hospitalizations increased and intensive care unit beds in several hospitals around the state reached capacity.
Stewart and other Democrats have called for DeSantis to issue a statewide order requiring masks to be worn in public, following the lead of Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbot. But he has resisted such calls, preferring a softer touch as major cities and counties have issued their own mask orders.
DeSantis, a Republican, has also consistently pointed to several factors to downplay the severity of the spike in cases.
The median age has dropped from the 60s to the 30s as more people have been tested, and younger people are much less likely to die from the disease, DeSantis said. The amount of testing has surged as well, contributing to the increase in overall cases, although the positivity rate has risen as well.
Florida’s per capita death rate of 19 for every 100,000 in population is 25th among states. Moreover, reverting back to shutdown orders would bring its own negative consequences, for the economy and mental health of residents, he said.
And Florida’s experience of “flattening the curve” has been better than New York’s, DeSantis says, and elder residents have been better protected.
“New York, they went through the boom and bust,” DeSantis said Tuesday at a news conference in Miami. “They had massive infections. We’ve had a flatter curve so those infections get spread out over a longer period of time.”
Some of DeSantis’ latest moves have led his political opponents to charge that he’s more motivated by loyalty to President Trump than public health. DeSantis is a high-profile Trump supporter, and was rewarded with a visit to the White House in April when Florida was touted as a model for other states.
But DeSantis’ critics point to the mixed messages in closing down bars while mandating schools reopen; inviting large crowds for the RNC and sporting events but emphasizing social distancing. They point out he has encouraged people to wear masks but not issued a statewide order and maintained the 14-day quarantine restriction on travelers from the New York City region even as that state’s daily caseload has dropped.
When asked if Florida has a responsibility to have the major events go smoothly, DeSantis spokeswoman Helen Ferre said all organizations, from the NBA to the theme parks, will have incentives to make sure safeguards are in place.
“There’s a responsibility on everyone and every organization,” Ferre said.
The GOP convention
DeSantis lobbied to get the GOP convention to come to Jacksonville after Trump sought a landing spot after pulling out of Charlotte, the initial venue. Some meetings will still take place in Charlotte, but
Trump balked at the lack of a guarantee by North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper that masks and social distancing would not be required.
Trump’s desire for a packed house of supporters, however, could still be thwarted. The rise in cases has even some supporters of the move to Jacksonville wary of flouting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.
Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry said venues in his city would likely have to be restricted to 50 percent capacity for RNC events if Florida remains in Phase 2. When DeSantis was asked whether events in Jacksonville would have to move forward in a half-full arena, he declined to answer.
What about schools
All states must grapple with how to reopen schools, but Florida’s gung-ho embrace of the push by Trump to mandate openings this fall has won the praise of the President, but also the ire of some administrators, teachers and parents.
Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran issued an order requiring K-12 public schools to open physical classrooms as an option for students next month. The order included a caveat that plans must have approval of public health officials. But it sparked protests among teachers in Orange County, and districts throughout the state were set scrambling to adjust their plans right as they were about to finalize them.
“We want to open schools but we want to do it safely,” said Fedrick Ingram, president of the Florida Education Association, the state’s largest teacher union. “We have lots of teachers that are over the age of 60, we have lots of teachers with preexisting conditions.”
Yet Trump is piling on pressure, threatening to withhold federal funding for schools that don’t open.
“What we’ve seen over the last 48 to 72 hours is driven by politics and by the economy, and it should be driven by some grace and some compassion but it should also be driven by science and public health and putting our kids first,” Ingram said. “They are making a political calculation that could be a catastrophe of epic proportions.”
On Friday, DeSantis said at a news conference in Orlando that local districts would have the flexibility to come up their own plans for reopening and the decisions should be driven by data, not politics.
MLS, NBA issues
The restart of MLS competition in Orlando has already been marred by the withdrawal of FC Dallas and Nashville because of COVID-19 outbreaks among players and staff. And the Orlando Pride had to pull out of the National Women’s Soccer League tournament in Utah because of an outbreak among its players.
The news has made some NBA stars and older coaches more skittish about their league’s restart, despite the “bubble” arranged by the league to prevent infections.
This week, some major NCAA conferences moved to restrict their football schedules, affecting Florida’s top programs. The Big Ten said it would move to conference-only schedules, a move that could be followed by other Power 5 conferences.
The 2020 elections
Florida’s primary election is scheduled for Aug. 18, but mail ballots are already being sent to voters. The amount of mail-in ballots is expected to increase significantly over concerns related to the coronavirus about voting in-person.
After the presidential preference primary in March, local supervisors of elections asked DeSantis for more flexibility in conducting the August election.
DeSantis didn’t respond until June 17, when he issued an order allowing election officials to begin tabulating mail votes earlier than the 22 days before the primary required by law and encouraging state workers to become poll workers to prevent staffing shortages.
Meanwhile, President
Trump continues to bash the idea of large-scale mailin voting, even though Florida Republicans have pushed the alternative way to vote for years.
DeSantis forged ahead with the March primary election, saying that “we voted in the Civil War, we’re voting” so the August election is likely to go forward despite any further spike in COVID-19 cases.
DeSantis is likely to move forward on other events, too.
“Society has to function,” is a refrain he’s repeated several times.
That approach confounds Stewart.
“They’re bound and determined they’re going to do it this way,” Stewart said. “I don’t know how we persuade them not to other than to experience what happens when they do move forward in this manner.”