Dems demand transparency

Delegation calls on DeSantis for virus information

Florida congressional Democrats on Friday called out Gov. Ron DeSantis for his “ongoing and purposeful lack of transparency” by being slowto releaseweekly White House coronavirus taskforcereportsandtemporarily pausing the reporting of backlogged COVID-19 deaths.

“During a public health emergency, it is imperative that your Administration provide Floridians with timelyinformationandguidancethatensurestheirhealth and safety,” said a letter sent to DeSantis on Friday and signedby 11 Florida lawmakers.

The letter comes a week after the Orlando Sentinel sued DeSantis and his office for failing to provide the task force reports and after reporting by the South FloridaSunSentinelthatshowed inconsistency in COVID-19 death numbers shortly after early voting started in Florida.

“By failing to publicly disclose the Task Force reports in a timely manner, and purposefully creating a reporting gap in Florida’s coronavirus death data, your Administration continues to demonstrate a lack of transparency without reason or justification,” the Florida Democratic members of Congress wrote in a letter co-led by U.S. Rep. Darren Soto and U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

In a separate letter to the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Soto and WassermanSchultzaskedfor an investigation into “possible irregularities” in the COVIDdailydeathreporting fromOct. 24toNov. 17.

On Friday, Florida reported more than 13,000 new coronavirus cases for the second day in a rowand amongthehighestdailycases reportedsincethepandemic began.

Statewide, morethan5,100 patients with COVID-19 wereinhospitalsasofFriday. That’s compared with a low of 2,000patients in October.

In Central Florida, nearly 560 COVID-19 patients are now in hospital beds, compared with a lowof 225 in mid-September.

Since the Orlando Sentinel sued, DeSantis’ office has released six reports — five from November and one from December, at a rateoftworeportsaday. The lawsuitisn’tresolvedbecause the state has not yet agreed to release the future reports in a timely manner. The parties have a hearing set for

Monday.

Thetwotask force reports releasedonFriday— forNov. 29 and Dec. 6— continue to showthe spread of the virus across the state and elevated hospital admissions. They also continue to stress the importance of mask wearing, physical distancing and avoiding large gatherings.

“Beginwarning about any gathering during December holidays,” said the Dec. 6 report in bold letters.

The Democrats’ letter to DeSantis highlighted that warning.

“In contravention, your Administration has ordered a full reopening of bars and restaurants, encouraged indoor dining, and sought to stoplocal governments from enforcing mask mandates,” the letter states.

Meanwhile, on Friday, the federal government began releasing a new coronavirus report called the COVID-19 Community Profile Report. The document focuses on recent COVID-19 outcomes in the last seven days and provides information at national, state and regional levels.

“This will give the Americanpeoplethesamecommunity level information that is available to federal personnel. We hope the publication of this data will help Americans make personal choices to slow the spread,” accordingtothegovernment websitewherethereportwas posted.

Unlike the weekly task force reports sent to state governors, the new report does not include state-level recommendations, nor does it provide detailed county-level data.

Amongthehighlightsfrom the report:

Orlando is one of the 10 large metro areas in the nation with an increasing burden of coronavirus cases. The metro area had a 50% increase in cases compared with the priorweek

In a scale of green to red, Florida falls in the orange zone for COVID-19 case positivity and hospital admissions. Thirty-five statesareconsideredred, led by Tennessee, Nevada and Oklahoma.

Nationwide, new cases and hospital admissions are at the highest level since the pandemic began. Positivity rates and deaths are also increasing.

NearlyallFloridacounties andmost counties across the nation are colored red and identified as having a high sustained burden of coronavirus cases.

Almostallstates, including Florida are colored dark red for the number of increase in the number new cases per capita over the last eight weeks.