Name: Florida coronavirus update for Tuesday: Death toll climbs by 72 as model predicts near 4,000
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Florida coronavirus update for Tuesday: Death toll climbs by 72 as model predicts near 4,000

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AdvertisementBy Orlando SentinelMay 06, 2020 at 8:50 pmThe latest coronavirus report from the Florida Department of Health added another 72 fatalities to raise the state death toll to 1,471.As Florida and other states across the U.S. begin their first steps toward reopening amid the coronavirus pandemic, and one model used by the Trump administration severely shifted its projected deaths for both Florida and the nation.AdvertisementAn Associated Press analysis found Tuesday that when including the still locked-down New York metropolitan area, new infections in the U.S. appear to be declining. The five-day rolling average for new cases decreased from 9.3 per 100,000 people three weeks ago on April 13 to 8.6 on Monday.But take the metropolitan area out of the analysis, and the rate of new cases in the U.S. increased over the same period from 6.2 per 100,000 people to 7.5. The daily number of new deaths in the metropolitan area also declined markedly in recent weeks, but essentially plateaued in the rest of the country.AdvertisementMeanwhile, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation research center out of the University of Washington, which has been one of the primary tools in determining government reaction to coronavirus, released new data late Monday that now projects nearly 4,000 deaths in Florida and nearly 135,000 deaths in the U.S.The numbers are more than double projections from just a week ago before several states, including Florida, lifted stay-at-home orders.The also now don’t show an end to daily deaths, but a continuing climb in death toll through Aug. 4, the extent of the projections at this time. For Florida, the projection is for 3,971 deaths with an uncertainty between 1,991 and 11,269. For the U.S., the projections is now 134,475 with an uncertainty between 95,092 and 242,890.In weeks past, as the state and nation were mostly locked down, the models had shown deaths topping out at around 1,900 for Florida and as low as 60,000 for the U.S.Despite the morbid change for long-term fatalities from COVID-19, the models still show that both Florida and the U.S. are at the top or even past the curve in terms of daily deaths.Florida’s deadliest day to date, according to the Florida Department of Health, was April 17 with 53 deaths, although as new fatalities are reported, daily death tolls are adjusted.Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday the White House is by early June and for “ongoing efforts to take place on an agency by agency level.”Tuesday’s update of 72 new reported deaths are not all from Monday, but run across several days. Tuesdays have been the biggest jump in reported deaths for two weeks in a row since the state switched it method of reporting from twice daily to one single morning report.AdvertisementNew COVID-19 cases Tuesday were up by 542 from Monday for a total of 37,439. The state has performed nearly 470,000 tests, with 8% returning positive for the virus.During a Tuesday press conference from the state’s newest drive-through testing site in Sarasota, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Monday’s statewide test results of more than 23,884 tests performed showed the lowest percentage of new positive cases yet, at just 2.61%, since major testing began.DeSantis said he’ll be giving more details Wednesday about a mobile RV lab coming to the state that will provide rapid 45-minute tests focused on the vulnerable populations at the state’s assisted living facilities.Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Jared Moskowitz said more mobile sites will come online this week, including locations in Brevard and Volusia counties, and will help push the state’s daily test capacity from 30,000 currently to its target of 40,000.DeSantis said the state’s drive-through testing sites later this week will begin offering the COVID-19 antibodies test that would confirm if people already had the virus, although he noted it’s uncertain how long antibodies are present in the body after infection. The state has 200,000 of the tests in hand and will be providing them to hospitals as well.Also at the press conference, DeSantis noted the section of his shutdown order that allowed take-out alcohol from restaurants has been one of the most successful changes made amid the coronavirus outbreak.Advertisement“I think that’s been pretty popular. We’re probably going to keep that going. Maybe we’ll have the Legislature change the law on that,” he said.He also said he felt “100% comfortable” going out to eat at a restaurant with his family, saying his children were not among the demographic most vulnerable to the virus.The U.S. surpassed 1.2 million cases Tuesday with more than 70,000 deaths. Worldwide, more than 255,000 people have died out of more than 3.6 million cases, according to the .Despite the projections, the state’s medical system did not become overwhelmed as some had predicted, which was a driving factor for DeSantis to begin “Phase 1” of his reopening plan Monday. All but the three South Florida counties of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach reopened retailers, restaurants and some state parks, although all with social distancing requirements and capacity restrictions.The state’s economic halt has seen more than 1 million confirmed claims to its beleaguered unemployment benefits site. Less than 50% of those claims have been paid out since the outbreak began in March.The dire state of unemployment will get some relief as the reopening plan continues.AdvertisementFlorida leaders are also beginning to think about begins in June.The standard hurricane procedure of people seeking safe haven in crowded shelters if their homes are flooded or without power could be catastrophic during a time when large crowds and close contact rapidly spread a novel virus.“We don’t know how the virus is going to react as we move into these various stages,” Gov. DeSantis said during a news conference Tuesday in Sarasota. “We don’t know what it’s going to look like a month from now, [or] three months from now, but we have to assume that it’s going to be with us in some capacity.”Moskowitz said he’s been working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency on hurricane preparation. One of the issues discussed was doing more “non-congregate” sheltering, which would be in places with individual rooms like hotels and motels, instead of “mass-congregate” sheltering at places such as gyms and other large rooms with dozens of cots.“Are we going to have COVID-only shelters? How are we going to do evacuations? How are we going to limit evacuations?” Moskowitz said, adding that one of the lessons learned from the outbreak is to make sure that the state has adequate supplies, so Florida already is creating a stockpile of personal protective equipment for hurricane season.To counter the increase in person-to-person contact, despite social distancing guidelines, the state continues to ramp up testing sites and local health officials say for now, data shows the response had been trending in the right direction.Advertisement“All the current data indicates we’re in good shape," said Dr. Raul Pino, director of the state Health Department in Orange County.The county has conducted more than 29,000 virus tests and the number yielding positive results continues to decline, with few than 5% of the tests coming back as positive for the virus. And 93% of local cases are considered “recovered,” Pino said.For the first time since early February, the number of people admitted to a hospital in Orange County after an emergency room visit because of cough, fever or shortness of breath, all frequent symptoms of the virus, dropped to nearly zero, Pino said. The weekly tally of patients visiting emergency rooms with influenza-like illness also has fallen to fewer than 100, down from 500 patients six weeks ago.Central Florida now has 4,221 cases, including 1,446 in Orange, 547 in Polk, 521 in Volusia, 514 in Osceola, 403 in Seminole, 319 in Brevard, 236 in Sumter and 235 in Lake.Five new fatalities were reported Tuesday bringing the Central Florida death toll to 143. The new deaths include a 48-year-old Lake County man, an 82-year-old Osceola County man, an 88-year-old Volusia County man and two women in Polk County, one 85 and the other 94. Orange County still leads the region with 35 reported deaths to date. ().South Florida remains the epicenter of the pandemic in the state, accounting for 59 percent of cases with 22,106 total among Miami-Dade (13,224), Broward (5,492) and Palm Beach (3,390) counties.Advertisement.You can find a running summary of the latest updates on the coronavirus in the Orlando area and Florida below. Also, sign up for new daily Florida coronavirus update by subscribing to The Health Report newsletter and as-they-happen Breaking News emails at .With all Disney theme parks around the globe closed by mid-March, the theme park division’s revenue plummeted by 10% to $5.5 billion for the second financial quarter ending March 31, the company said. A year ago, Disney’s theme parks generated nearly $6.1 billion in revenue.Disney executives are expected to discuss the company’s finances and answer questions in a call that began at 4:30 p.m.This is what Shanghai Disneyland will look like when it reopens May 11. sent this out during earnings call. — Gabrielle Russon (@GabrielleRusson)With college entrance testing sessions expected to resume this summer, submitting ACT or SAT scores appears at Florida’s state universities for students seeking 2021 admissionThe 12 public universities had urged the state to waive the requirement for incoming freshmen after several exam administrations were canceled this spring because of the coronavirus pandemic if the scheduled August testing sessions could not go on as planned.AdvertisementPence that the U.S. could be “in a very different place” come late May and early June “as we continue to practice social distancing and states engage in safe and responsible reopening plans.” The administration is beginning to eye that window as the appropriate time for federal agencies to begin managing the pandemic response “in a more traditional way,” he said.Dr. Deborah Birx, the task force coordinator, said the federal government would still keep a close eye on the data if the task force disbands. “It took us a while to build that capacity and we’ll make sure that we’re watching that at a federal level,” she said.Publix workers at three more , bringing the total for the region to seven.A worker at the Publix at 10615 Narcoossee Road and another at 14185 Lake Nona Blvd. in Orlando tested positive, along with an associate who works at 29 Blake Blvd. in Celebration, spokeswoman Maria Brous said. The Lakeland-based company at 2873 S. Orange Ave. south of downtown Orlando, 16825 E. Colonial Drive near Bithlo, 2295 Aloma Ave. in Winter Park and 2338 E. Irlo Bronson Memorial Highway in Kissimmee.An executive at Westgate Resorts, the timeshare company run by Orlando businessman David Siegel, offered to use coronavirus relief money from the federal government to give short-term jobs to travel bloggers to write stories promoting the company’s resorts, Asked this week about the offer by the Sentinel, a senior Westgate executive — Chief Operating Officer Mark Waltrip — acknowledged in an email that the company has received money through the federal government’s “Paycheck Protection Program,” an emergency program meant to help the country’s smallest businesses continue paying their employees during the COVID-19 economic collapse. But Waltrip said the company has not used any of that money to temporarily hire outside travel writers.AdvertisementHomeless people diagnosed with COVID-19 or its respiratory symptoms have a place in Orange County to go besides a hospital or a shelter.County commissioners to provide temporary housing during the pandemic. An informal agreement has been in place since April 10. The county will pay AD1 Orlando Hotels LLC $50 per room per day at the Best Western, up to $200,000, according to procurement records.Scientists have identified a new strain of the coronavirus that has become dominant worldwide and appears to be more contagious than the versions that spread in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new study led by scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory.The new strain appeared in February in Europe, migrated quickly to the East Coast of the United States and has been the dominant strain across the world since mid-March, the scientists wrote.In addition to after a first bout with the disease, the report warned.Orlando Magic CEO Alex Martins said the NBA is determined to resume play and that has been suspended indefinitely by the coronavirus pandemic.AdvertisementAfter suspending play March 11, the league reportedly hoped for a return in mid-June, but Martins said Tuesday the NBA’s calendar has shifted. The league is now considering a return later in the summer and pushing back the start of the 2020-21 season if that’s what it takes to complete the current season.A 48-year-old man became the youngest victim of the coronavirus infection in Lake and Sumter counties, , the state Department of Health said. The man came into contact with someone who had COVID-19.Overall, 28 people have died from the infection in Lake and Sumter, among the 1,471 deaths across Florida.Pointing to expected voting problems this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, left-leaning groups have Priorities USA, Alianza for Progress, the Florida Alliance for Retired Americans and individual plaintiffs filed the lawsuit Monday, almost exactly six months before the Nov. 3 general election. The lawsuit challenges state laws and procedures that include requiring elections supervisors to receive vote-by-mail ballots by 7 p.m. on election night for the ballots to count.Lake County commissioners said Tuesday they support opening more businesses, such as salons, barbers and gyms in the Other officials across Central Florida have raised the same issue to Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose Phase 1 coronavirus order allows some businesses to operate under limitations on capacity, social distancing and similar limitations.AdvertisementMajor U.S. automakers are planning to reopen North American factories within two weeks, as part of a gradual return to normality.Fiat Chrysler CEO Mike Manley said Tuesday his company plans to start reopening factories May 18 depending on easing of government restrictions. Detroit automakers will likely be on the same timetable because their workers are represented by the same union. The United Auto Workers union on Tuesday appeared to be onboard.Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd., amended a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday citing the financial losses due to coronavirus mean there is “substantial doubt” the company can “continue as a going concern.”The filing from the company’s independent registered public accounting firm states the company expects it will need additional financing to satisfy outstanding debt, and without funds coming in from its three cruise line brands - Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania and Regent Seven Seas - it will Another potential coronavirus vaccine on Monday. If the tests are successful, the vaccine could be ready for emergency use as early as September.New York-based Pfizer and German pharmaceutical company BioNTech are jointly developing the vaccine candidate -- called BNT162 -- and the first human volunteers were injected with their vaccine in Germany last month. In the United States, the drug companies plan to test the vaccine on 360 healthy volunteers for the first stage of the study, adding up to 8,000 volunteers by the end of the second stage.AdvertisementFifteen children, many of whom had the coronavirus, have recently been hospitalized in New York City with a but that has also been reported in several European countries, health officials announced Monday night.Many of the children, ages 2 to 15, have shown symptoms associated with toxic shock or Kawasaki disease, a rare illness in children that involves inflammation of the blood vessels, including coronary arteries, the city’s health department said.None of the New York City patients with the syndrome have died, according to a bulletin from the health department, which describes the illness as a “multisystem inflammatory syndrome potentially associated with COVID-19.”As President Donald Trump presses states to reopen their economies, his administration is privately projecting a steady rise in coronavirus infections and deaths over the next several weeks, reaching about 3,000 daily deaths on June 1 — nearly double the current level.The projections, based on data collected by various agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and , forecast about 200,000 new cases each day by the end of May, up from about 30,000 cases now. There are currently about 1,750 deaths per day, the data shows.Even before the coronavirus pandemic sparked an economic implosion, some 350,000 Central Florida working households — and a third of those statewide — And that doesn’t include the roughly 13 percent of households that were living in poverty.AdvertisementAccording to a report to be released Tuesday by the nonprofit Heart of Florida United Way, of Florida’s 7.8 million households, nearly 2.6 million were unable to afford the basic expenses of housing, child care, food, transportation, health care and a smartphone plan, despite having jobs.Gov. Ron DeSantis into what went wrong with the $77 million unemployment compensation system that has struggled to pay hundreds of thousands of Floridians who lost their jobs because of the coronavirus pandemic. At the same time, the governor said the CONNECT system has shown great improvement in the past two weeks because of additional staffing and changes made to how claims have been handled.Workers aren’t just putting on masks and gloves to keep us fed. Amid all the upheaval, With record demand for food and housing assistance, charities throughout Central Florida are hoping #GivingTuesdayNow — — can bolster bottom lines battered by the coronavirus pandemic. The global event is organized by the same coalition of philanthropists who launched the annual post-Thanksgiving #GivingTuesday, which raised $511 million in the U.S. last year.Wear disposable gloves when cleaning and disinfecting surfaces. Gloves should be discarded after each cleaning. If reusable gloves are used, those gloves should be dedicated for cleaning and disinfection of surfaces for COVID-19 and should not be used for other purposes.AdvertisementCall your health-care provider if you have cough, fever, shortness of breath, chills, repeated shaking with chills, muscle pain, headache, sort throat and new loss of taste or smell — and you’ve been in close contact with someone who has COVID-19.WeeklyA weekly update on health news in Florida. &gt; Follow these recommendations for using a face mask: The wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social-distancing measures are difficult to maintain (e.g., grocery stores and pharmacies), especially in areas of significant community-based transmission. The Florida Department of Health has set up a call center to answer questions about coronavirus. There’s a number for Orange County, too.The Florida Department of Health’s number is 1-866-779-6121 and is available Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Residents may also email questions to .In Orange County, the number to call is 407-723-5004; it’s available Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.For mental-health help, .AdvertisementSee complete coverage at .This article originally appeared on . The Associated Press contributed to this report. Advertisement

AdvertisementBy Orlando SentinelMay 06, 2020 at 8:50 pmThe latest coronavirus report from the Florida Department of Health added another 72 fatalities to raise the state death toll to 1,471.As Florida and other states across the U.S. begin their first steps toward reopening amid the coronavirus pandemic, and one model used by the Trump administration severely shifted its projected deaths for both Florida and the nation.AdvertisementAn Associated Press analysis found Tuesday that when including the still locked-down New York metropolitan area, new infections in the U.S. appear to be...

Florida coronavirus update for Tuesday: Death toll climbs by 72 as model predicts near 4,000

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