Seminole official warns we’ll be ‘like New York’
The coronavirus is spreading exponentially in Seminole County with a record-setting 176 cases reported on Tuesday, a nearly 50% increase from a week ago when the county saw its previous record-setting day with 118 cases.
“Right now, this virus is after us,” said Dr. Todd Husty, Seminole’s medical director. “This thing is just bowling over us. And if we’re not careful, it’s going to be a whole bunch worse, and were going to be like New York.”
Seminole reported 56 hospitalized COVID-19 patients on Wednesday, up 10 from just two days ago.
Donna Walsh, Seminole’s officer for the Florida Department of Health, said the county this month has recorded 1,229 positive cases of the virus, a more than ten-fold increase of the total 117 positive cases in May.
Walsh added that 36% of the positive cases currently are individuals in their 20s.
“The people in their 20s and 30s, they probably will fare OK,” Walsh said. “But it’s those who they will expose: the parents, the grandparents.”
Since bars started reopening on June 5, people have let their guard down, have been crowding shoulder-to-shoulder and not wearing face masks, officials said.
County officials said testing sites across Seminole have been overwhelmed with people wanting to get tested over the past two weeks.
A free testing site at Lake Brantley High School in Altamonte Springs on Wednesday, for example, was scheduled to be open for four hours. But officials closed it within 45 minutes after more than 350 people — the number of tests available — lined up in their cars outside the school.
A day earlier, 516 people were tested at Carillon Elementary in Oviedo and 224 were tested at Winter Springs High School. The Carillon test site was added this week after health officials ran out of test kits on June 17 after testing more than 500 people at that school.
The area between Oviedo and south to the University of Central Florida campus is considered a hotspot. Officials attribute it to nearby bars and restaurants that cater to university students who live in Seminole just over the Orange County border, which serves as the northern boundary of the campus.
“There’s been a large demand” for testing, said Alan Harris, Seminole’s emergency management director.
Seminole officials, however, said the rise in cases is not necessarily connected to the increase in testing, rather more people venturing into crowded areas unprotected.
“You’ve been locked up for months, and you get let out, and you’re going to go out and party,” Husty said. “And a lot of people did that, and now we’re seeing the numbers go up…. We’re hosting a party for the virus.”
Still, Seminole officials said they have no plans to issue another county-wide order that individuals must wear face masks when going to public places, as Orange and Osceola counties currently mandate.
“We understand that it’s important to wear a mask,” Zembower said. “But the problem is enforcement…. I respect our community’s ability to do the right thing.”
County officials also announced that the county will receive $20.5 million in CARES Act funding that will help individuals and businesses impacted by the coronavirus economic slowdown. The county will start accepting applications next week, officials said.
The CARES Act – or the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act – is a $2 trillion aid package approved by the federal government in March. Orange County, larger and more populous than Seminole, received about $243 million.
“We know people in our business community continue to hurt,” Zembower said.