Cases rising near UCF
Young people returning to bars, tend to be ‘a less cautious group’
When Central Florida bars were allowed to open June 5 for the first time in nearly three months, UCF student haunts wasted no time welcoming back their clientele.
“We’re back, baby!” The Knight’s Pub wrote on social media that afternoon, promising free admission for the first hour to women 21 and older, plus free beer and other drinks. A student who was there that night says the place was packed with eager party-goers lining up outside an hour before the doors opened to the club just across Alafaya Trail from the sprawling university campus.
But Knight’s Pub is already closed again — a decision the owner made voluntarily after learning someone who visited the club had symptoms similar to those associated with coronavirus.
A state health official in Orange County said 30 cases of the virus were linked to a single business in the UCF area, though he wouldn’t identify it by name.
And in neighboring Seminole County, which borders the northern edge of UCF’s campus, officials are reporting growing infection rates among 18 to 30-year-olds in recent weeks. A number of college students live in neighborhoods just over the county line.
Officials reported 92 cases between June 8 and June 16 for the 32765 ZIP code, which includes most of Oviedo, a city of about 40,000, as well as the area that butts up against the University of Central Florida. That’s more than half of the 145 total cases the ZIP code has seen since March when widespread
testing was started.
“If the bars weren’t open, then I don’t know if anyone would be getting sick,” said one University of Central Florida student, who didn’t want to be named because his friends work at The Knight’s Pub.
The 21-year-old said he and four of the five people in his group that went to the bar on June 5 tested positive for coronavirus within a few days. Owner Michael D’Esposito said the bar voluntarily shut down when a customer called saying they had coronavirus symptoms.
The spike has so alarmed Seminole health officials that they quickly scheduled a “pop up” test site from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday at Carillon Elementary School in Oviedo. At the site, residents can be tested for free, regardless of symptoms, and will be offered $10 food vouchers that can be redeemed at most grocery stores as an incentive for people, including college students, to get tested.
“They are definitely a less cautious group, and I know I was when I was that age,” said Dr.
Todd Husty, Seminole County’s medical director, of infections among those under 30. “And it’s pretty much the loosening of social distancing. People not wearing facial coverings. And we’re all seeing pictures of people in bars where everyone is standing shoulder to shoulder.”
Dr. Raul Pino, officer for the Florida Department of Health in Orange, said he was aware of an increase in the number of cases near UCF. Any outbreak is a concern, Pino said, but younger adults have generally had better health outcomes than older ones.
“Talking about concern, it’s more about risk and risk is relative and I would be more concerned about five elderly people in a health facility than I am about 20 young people,” Pino said.
Since the start of the pandemic “we’ve always had hot spots in certain neighborhoods” around Central Florida, Husty said. “But around UCF was never that hot. But now we have everyone thinking: ‘That’s changed, and why has it changed?”
Alan Harris, Seminole’s emergency management director, said individuals between the ages of 18 and 30 infected with the coronavirus may have little or no symptoms, yet can still transmit the virus to others who may be more vulnerable.
Husty added that although young people have a lower mortality rate, they can develop neurological or respiratory complications that last for years or lifelong from the coronavirus.
Despite the record surge in positive cases, Seminole officials said they have no plans yet to put back in place social distancing orders that were enacted in March when the county saw a previous surge in cases.
That month, the county prohibited gatherings of more than 10 people, limited business occupancy to 25% allowed under the county’s the fire code, and required patrons and employees to stand at least six feet apart. But most of those restrictions were lifted as the number of cases dropped.
“At this juncture, we are all very concerned about what we’re seeing and we’re monitoring it closely as it unfolds,” Seminole Commission Chairman Jay Zembower said. “My message to the young people: Look, I get it. You think you’re invincible. That you’re not the population that are likely going to die…But you have a responsibility to the rest of the public. So stop being silly and wear a mask and take precautions.”
D’Esposito, owner of The Knight’s Pub, acknowledged patrons were standing close together in line prior to the bar’s opening on June 5 and many were smoking electronic cigarettes, though he didn’t think the bar was crowded once people were inside. He said the club admitted 350 patrons and turned the rest away — painful for a bar that had been closed for several months and was late on its rent. He said he had planned to open for a couple of days to see how it went and has been working with local health officials.
Enforcing social distancing guidelines with young adults, who often have a “Superman syndrome” that makes them think they are invincible, is difficult, D’Esposito said.
News of the positive cases has spread across UCF’s campus, said student Alex Rutledge, a 19-year-old student who lives at his parent’s home 15 minutes from campus,
“I’ve been seeing stories here and there of people that have been going out to the bars and have tested positive,’ Rutledge said.
That’s “terrifying,” said Laura Murray, a Merritt Island mother whose two sons, ages 20 and 22, live near UCF. Five of her older son’s friends have tested positive for the virus. They’ve mostly been asymptomatic.
“They’re not wearing the masks. They’re not social distancing. They’re not doing anything,” Murray said.
“And it’s pretty much the loosening of social distancing. People not wearing facial coverings. And we’re all seeing pictures of people in bars where everyone is standing shoulder to shoulder.”
Dr. Todd Husty, Seminole County’s medical director