FLORIDA CORONAVIRUS BRIEFING
As of Thursday evening, Orange County has 119 COVID-19 cases, while Florida has 2,484 cases and 30 deaths.
Elsewhere in Central Florida, Osceola County now has 45, followed by Seminole’s 40, Volusia’s 34, Lake’s 26, Sumter’s 24, Polk’s 20 and Brevard’s 14. The state updates its totals twice a day, at about 11 a.m. and 6 p.m.
After increased testing on site in recent days, infections in The Villages now lead coronavirus cases in Lake and Sumter counties. Of the combined 50 cases in the neighboring counties as of Thursday morning, 22 of those live in The Villages, the retirement community of more than 100,000 people that sprawls across Lake, Sumter and Marion counties.
South Florida leads the state in the outbreak, with more than 1,300 cases among Miami-Dade (654), Broward (505) and Palm Beach (174) counties, accounting for more than half the cases in the state. More testing has been available in South Florida, however.
Lake inmates make masks
Inmates at the Lake County Jail are joining an effort with local churches to sew masks to protect healthcare workers on the front lines to combat the spread of COVID-19 as more confirmed cases are being reported statewide.
The effort by the Lake County Sheriff’s Office is in partnership with Lake Support and Emergency Recovery, Inc., or LASER, a nonprofit created to aid recovery efforts following natural disasters. The masks will go to patients showing symptoms of novel coronavirus.
911 calls, jail bookings drop
Law enforcement agencies have seen a drop in 911 calls and local jails have seen a decrease in new bookings in recent days. Officials believe the dip in calls and arrests are mostly due to the area’s response to the viral pandemic, which has involved urging people to stay home to stop its spread. But its still too soon to know exactly what is driving the dip and how long it might last.
Broward: Stay at home
Broward County is urging everyone to stay at home to help stop the spread of the coronavirus, but an order issued Thursday carries no penalties for people who don’t comply.
The “shelter-in-place policy” says county officials “strongly urge” all residents to stay home unless they are leaving to buy food, going to a job considered essential to the community or dealing with an emergency. It goes into effect at 12:01 a.m. Friday.
County officials say the move is necessary to stem the rise in new cases in Broward County, one of the state’s hardest-hit counties. Already the county ordered a shutdown of non-essential businesses and nonprofits and asked workers do their jobs from home.
Poll workers test positive
Two Broward County poll workers, including one who accepted and handled voters’ driver licenses on primary day, have tested positive for the new coronavirus.
One of the poll workers was on duty for all nine days of early voting at a site in Weston. That person also worked at a precinct in Hollywood on primary day on March 17. A second poll worker was on duty at another Hollywood precinct on March 17.
One of the poll workers was assigned to the David Park Community Center in Hollywood on primary day. As one of eight workers at that location, he handled peoples’ driver licenses and scanned them as part of the voter check-in and identification process.
A total of 61 people voted at that location, but there was also one other person operated another scanning device, so not everyone’s license would have been handled by the worker who now has COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.
The same poll worker was also a poll deputy at the early voting site at the Weston Branch library, where 3,088 people voted over nine days from March 7-15. His job at that location was operating outside the polling place, directing voters.
The other poll worker who tested positive was on duty at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center in Hollywood, where 204 people voted on March 17. That person held a position that generally doesn’t involve contact with voters.
Brightline suspends service
The coronavirus pandemic has taken Brightline off the tracks — for now anyway. The final northbound train departed from Miami at 5:50 p.m. Wednesday. The high-speed rail system is suspending service immediately, Brightline President Patrick Goddard said. With no one knowing when service might resume, more than 250 Brightline employees lost their jobs Wednesday night, Brightline spokesman Mike Hicks said.