Fewer cases, more in hospital

Deaths also part of downward trend; positivity rate near 5%

Florida’s coronavirus cases continued on the downswing Monday, with the state reporting 2,258 cases, nearly 700 fewer than Sunday’s new infections and the lowest single-day count reported in two months.

Another indicator of Florida’s move in the right direction is its positivity rate for infections — hovering near 5.02%.

The positivity rate reported Monday — a sign of reduced spread of the coronavirus — reflects results processed in the past day, which is for new infections only and doesn’t count people who previously tested positive. While the positivity rate has dropped, the Florida Department of Health on Monday reported test results for only 45,603 people, a significant decline from the nearly 98,611 test results reported two days earlier.

State officials have tallied 602,829 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began, according to reports from the Florida Department of Health.

Florida has recorded 10,534 deaths from the disease, including 72 additional people reported Monday. There were no new nonresident deaths, leaving the nonresident toll at 137.

The daily total does not reflect deaths that occurred in the past 24 hours, but over recent weeks.

The deaths reported Monday represent a sharp decline from the record 277 coronavirus deaths reported on Aug. 11. The one-day peak for new cases was July 12, with 15,300 infections.

While new infections declined, hospitalizations rose slightly overnight: 4,635 people were hospitalized in Florida at 10 a.m. on Monday, an increase of 56 people from the total of 4,579 who were hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19 as of 1 p.m. Sunday.

However, emergency room visits in Florida for COVID-like illness continues to decline from a high of nearly 15,000 in mid-July to about 4,000 in the week beginning Aug. 16.

Encouraged by the downward trend, local government officials are leaning toward leaving South Florida’s beaches open for the upcoming Labor Day weekend.

That was not the case for the Fourth of July weekend, when Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties closed beaches to help prevent the spread of the highly contagious virus.

All three counties have been taking a unified approach when it comes to beach closures during the pandemic.

When Miami-Dade closed its beaches, Broward and Palm Beach counties followed suit to keep people from traveling from county to county to go to open beaches.

South Florida

South Florida, which accounts for 29% of Florida’s population, reported 905 new cases in the past

Born in Waterbury, Connecticut, Shailer met his future-wife Mildred ‘Midge’ Shailer when she was a nursing undergraduate senior and he was in his first year of law school. Midge worked as a nurse for the county’s health department and after witnessing the abuse and mistreatment of children, founded Kids in Distress. She passed away in November of last year.

Shailer was known to be passionate about baseball and was a huge Yankee fan. His wife got him into basketball once he got to law school and he became an avid golfer as he got older.

A U.S. Marine veteran and Yale School of Economics graduate, Shailer then got his law degree from Duke University before settling in Fort Lauderdale in 1965. He worked as an assistant public defender in Broward County before being elected as the county’s lead public defender in 1967.

“I knew Phil as an icon before I became his friend,” said Howard Finkelstein, outgoing Broward County Public Defender.

Finkelstein recalls Shailer hosting frequent lunches with other attorneys where he would assign readings to discuss at their next lunch.

“Phil is a brilliant man with a brilliant mind,” Finkelstein continued. “He’s a renaissance man. He was the tip of the spear when it came to intellectual prowess … It’s profoundly sad. The legal universe dims. There are very few people in the world that ascend to the levels Phil did. He’s truly one of a kind.”

In 1969, at the age of just 31, Shailer was elected as Broward County State Attorney, the most powerful law enforcement position in the county.

In the three years prior, the county averaged one state attorney per year. He was appointed to the position the year prior before winning his election the following year.

Shailer would serve until 1976, when Michael Satz won his election, who has held the position ever since. Satz decided not to run for reelection and will vacate his seat at the end of this term.

Vying to succeed Satz as Broward’s next top prosecutor are Harold Pryor, who won the democratic primary for State Attorney last week, and Republican Gregg Rossman.

“Everything Phil Shailer did, he did it well; really fine lawyer, fine public official, when he went into private practice, he did really well,” Satz said. “Wonderful father, wonderful husband and great friend. He had a tremendous moral compass and he was well respected by everyone. It was an honor to be his friend.”

Satz and Finkelstein said that Shailer is the only person in Broward County’s history to have been elected as state attorney and public defender.

After his term as State Attorney ended, Shailer served on the Inspector General Selection and Oversight Committee in the State Attorney’s Office, where he oversaw the agency’s watchdog office and worked as a senior vice-president for Alamo Rent-A-Car.

Shailer was preceded in death by his son Steven, wife Midge, and granddaughter Jordan Curley and is survived by daughter Tracy Coe, daughter Leslie Shailer Curley and granddaughters Tatum Coe, Riley Coe and Cloe Shailer Iovino.

Plans for a service have not yet been finalized.