Broward mayor calls COVID spread ‘grave’
Broward County Mayor Dale Holness talks to the media in Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday.
Broward County Mayor Dale Holness said he and 25 mayors of Broward cities participated in a briefing with hospitals and the local health department Tuesday morning and learned the situation with the spread of COVID-19 in Broward is “grave.”
Positive cases in Broward are now being transmitted within households, within families, Holness said he learned from the Broward Department of Health on the briefing. “So the spread is there. It is now happening in our households. We must recognize that and take precautions even within our own households,” Holness said.
Broward County has the second highest number of positive cases in the state — 1,330 new coronavirus cases reported Tuesday,
bringing the total to 32,814. A total of 487 people have died,
Holness said Broward’s mayors reported seeing house parties in their cities with young people gathering, not wearing masks and not practicing social distancing.
“I spoke with the Broward Sheriff’s Office yesterday, and they indicated since March they have received 1,100 calls for parties in neighborhoods in single-family households,” he said. “That is a big reason we are seeing some of the spread.”
Holness said restaurants also are a place where people are partying. Broward County has an order in place requiring restaurants to shut down for on-site dining from midnight until 5 a.m.
“If we have these restaurants not operating at 50% capacity and not social distancing and having parties, you are more likely to have the spread of COVID-19, and it’s demonstrated in the numbers we see that it’s spreading in much younger people,” Holness said at the time of the order.
The county will continue to enforce that requirement with citations, and fines up to $15,000, Holness said Tuesday. Bars and pubs still remain closed, but some restaurants are breaking the rules and acting as if they are pubs, which needs to end, Holness said.
Another area of concern: vacation rentals. Mayors throughout the county want vacation rentals shut down, citing the number of parties taking place at those properties. Holness said he is reluctant to do that and punish those that are acting in good faith. But he wants to encourage
enforcement.
“It’s really serious what we need to do here in Broward County to stem the tide in this severe increase in positive tests,” he said.
Holness said hospitals on the call Tuesday with mayors reported ICU occupancy as high as 90% and overall occupancy at 81%. He is concerned that local hospitals reported a shortage of the drug Remdesivir, which is being used to treat patients with COVID-19.
While Broward County is averaging three deaths a day, Holness said, he expects that to increase because of the rising number of positive cases.
“Social responsibility is critical for all of us,” he said.
The state Department of Health said 4,514 people in Florida have died since the pandemic began, an increase of 132 since Monday’s report.