Governor still won’t issue statewide shutdown as Florida now has 85 coronavirus deaths

Gov. Ron DeSantis continued to resist calls for a statewide “stay-at-home” order even as the number of people in Florida tested positive for COVID-19 steadily increased on Tuesday night, up to 6,741 cases with 85 deaths.

The increase came as an epidemiologist behind a coronavirus model recently cited by the White House advised Florida to issue a blanket stay-at-home order mandating the closure of non-essential businesses and social isolation to curb the spread of the highly contagious virus.

DeSantis, at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, said the White House’s coronavirus task force had not recommended he shut down the state. “The task force has not recommended that to me. If they do, obviously that would be something that carries a lot of weight with me,” he said.

“You’re damn right,” DeSantis said when asked about people still flocking to South Florida beaches. “Folks are going to do whatever the hell they want to.”

Over the weekend, the White House cited a coronavirus model done by Ali Mokdad, a professor at the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, in extending national social-distancing recommendations through the end of April.

Mokdad, who spoke to the Miami Herald Monday afternoon before speaking to Florida Surgeon General Scott Rivkees, said he would “strongly recommend shutting down everything.” He said he told Rivkees that the state should issue a blanket stay-at-home order.

The institute’s model — which is updated daily as data changes — predicts that even if such an order is given, Florida’s coronavirus outbreak won’t peak until early May in numbers that will still overwhelm intensive care units and potentially lead to thousands of deaths by the summer.

The numbers in the United States and Florida continued to appear increasingly grim Tuesday night.

Nationally, the nation surpassed 3,600 deaths, more than the number reported by China, where the outbreak began in December. On Tuesday evening, President Donald Trump said White House advisers and scientific modeling predicted up to 200,000 deaths in the United States.

In Florida, on Tuesday morning, the state’s total number of confirmed cases had jumped by 634 from the previous night’s total. By the evening, it had jumped another 403 cases — to total 6,741. And another 14 people died since Monday night, raising the state’s death total to 85.

Miami-Dade continued to be the epicenter of the state’s coronavirus outbreak, with 2,123 people diagnosed as of Tuesday evening, resulting in seven deaths and 142 hospitalizations. As for Broward County, it had 1,219 cases, with 12 deaths and 126 hospitalizations.

Among those reported infected as of Tuesday night: three Florida Highway Patrol officers, one of them based in Miami-Dade. Additionally, a longtime University of Miami Health System employee died of COVID-19, UM reported Tuesday.

Also on Tuesday:

▪ Broward County commissioners delayed a vote on whether to allow two cruise ships, the Zandaam and the Rotterdam, to dock in Fort Lauderdale. The ships, from the Carnival-owned Holland America line, have dozens of ill crew members and passengers aboard; four passengers have died aboard the Zandaam.

Stuck at sea, the ships have been unable to dock in any countries and will approach Fort Lauderdale on Thursday as commissioners are expected to vote on what to do. DeSantis, on Thursday, said he did not believe they should be allowed to dock, and instead should have medical supplies ferried to them at sea.

Another ship, Princess Cruises’ Coral Princess, is also planning to dock at Port Everglades on April with a “higher-than-normal” number of people with flu-like symptoms, the Sun-Sentinel reported.

Also, the U.S. Coast Guard is now directing ships registered in the Bahamas to seek aid from that country first — even if the ships are owned by Miami-based companies. It is also advising ships with more than 50 aboard that they may be sequestered “indefinitely.”

▪ Miami Beach ordered supermarkets, pharmacies and other “essential businesses” to limit their capacity by half, keep employees, keep customers six feet from each other at all times, and provide disinfecting wipes and hand sanitizers. The city, its new emergency order, also ordered self-service food stations and salad bars to close.

The announcement came after employees at Publix and Trader Joe’s stores in Miami Beach tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus.

The Publix supermarket chain also announced employees can now wear gloves and masks to protect them and customers from possible infection from the coronavirus. Two more Publix employees have tested positive.

Also on Tuesday, Whole Foods confirmed that two employees at its Fort Lauderdale store tested positive. The store, 2000 N. Federal Hwy., underwent “an additional cleaning and disinfection, on top of our current enhanced sanitation measures,” Whole Foods said.

▪ One of Miami-Dade’s leading builders, Sergio Pino, issued a public plea Tuesday for the construction industry to shut down construction sites and prevent an outbreak of coronavirus among their workers.

“The only way to stop the spread of this virus is by cutting its roots,” Pino, president of Century Homebuilders, said in an email. Construction workers, he said, “continue to be exposed and have already been infected. This will result in a chain reaction across the board in all jobsites as long as they remain open.”

On March 26th, Pino became the first developer in Miami-Dade to cease work at one of his sites, the $100 million mixed-use project 850 LeJeune Road, after two of his workers tested positive for coronavirus.

This story was originally published March 31, 2020 at 7:52 PM.