Officials: Virus resurgence could worsenwith Thanksgiving
With COVID-19 cases on the rise and Thanksgiving coming up next week, South Florida health officials are urging families to keep their holiday travel and gatherings to a minimum.
“I’m very concerned with the holidays,” said Dr. Alina Alonso, Palm Beach County’s health department director. “I’m very concerned that so many people are going to be traveling.”
Alonso is among the health officials across the country who are trying to ward off a holiday-fueled surge in COVID-19 cases. The key measures of the country’s effectiveness in managing the pandemic are heading in the wrong direction. Hospitalizations, deaths and cases are all rising across theU.S.
The demand forCOVID19 tests has risen in Palm Beach County as more people prepare to travel fromFlorida to other states. Appointments are required for tests at the county’s test site at the FITTEAM Ballpark in West Palm Beach and are encouraged at other sites, which likely has caused an increase in phone calls to schedule COVID tests.
“Yesterday the phone lines were very busy in the testing [centers] because everyone needs a test before they take the flight,” Alonso said. “Many of our residents
here in Palm Beach County will be traveling up north, where the states are in real critical conditions.”
More than 73,000 people — an all-time high — were hospitalized with the virus in theU.S. as ofMonday, an increase of over 3,000 from a day earlier, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
The average number of new cases per day has more than doubled over the past few weeks. Broward,
Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties have seen a 44% increase in coronavirus patients in recent weeks, a rise resembling the rest of Florida, according to state figures.
Palm Beach County, among the most populous counties in Florida, has had the third-highestnumberof total positive cases across the state with more than 58,000, including 358 new casesMonday. Palm Beach County has seen a slowbut
steady increase in COVID19 infections in recent weeks, with a lowof 216 on Nov. 1 and a spike of 730 on Nov. 14.
Alonso urged people to limit their travel as much as possible, encouraging people to only see local family members who they already see on a daily basis and maintaining social distancing at any gatherings. For those planning to travel for the holiday, Alonso recommended
quarantining beforehand, saying her son did exactly that before coming to visit her.
“This is not the time to ask Uncle Joey from Wisconsin to come visit,” she said. “My son came to visit and quarantined himself for 14days beforehe cameto visit, Godblesshim, and hewas very concerned the whole time for me and I really appreciated it. For a 20-year-old, that’s pretty amazing behavior.”
Anyone traveling should wear a mask at all times when in public, especially at highly trafficked areas such as airports, and be careful when exchanging cash, credit cards or anything else with others, Alonso said.
Not only will people be traveling, but others will be having social outings: Younger people are contracting COVID-19 at bars, clubs, restaurants and house parties. And while theymay be asymptomatic, they are spreading the virus to others in their community, Alonso warned Tuesday.
Palm Beach County Emergency Management Director Bill Johnson said the risk of spread is higher now that businesses have been reopening and that the county is threeweeks into a resurgence.
Hospitals have been seeing a slow and steady increase in patients, and universities also have seen a “steady or slight” increase, Johnson said Tuesday. University students have been dealing with “pandemic fatigue,” where they are circumventing testing and screening procedures, he said.