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Florida will see “significant deaths for many weeks” as the state faces a complete resurgence of the deadly coronavirus, the latest report from the White House Coronavirus Task Force warned.
The January 10 report, made public Tampa bay times Friday, said the rapidly growing number of cases is straining hospital staffing. He continued to place Florida in the red zone for its number of new cases and said 11% of hospitals in the state were reporting a staffing shortage, a slight increase from the previous week.
The White House Coronavirus Task Force, led by Vice President Mike Pence, produces weekly reports for each state. Reports have frequently urged Florida and other states to take action to mitigate the spread of the virus, including limiting the capacity of bars and restaurants and implementing face mask policies.
The Jan. 10 report notes the emergence of a potentially more contagious strain of the virus as a reason for Florida to take strict measures to prevent the spread of the infection.
“Aggressive mitigation measures must be used to match a more aggressive virus,” the report recommended, adding that “without the uniform implementation of an effective face mask … and strict physical distancing, epidemics could quickly get worse. “
He said Florida “needs to increase public mitigation both state and local” and increase communication about the importance of things like avoiding family gatherings. He recommended that all Kindergarten to Grade 12 teachers and older students, as well as those in colleges and universities, take weekly tests. Florida did not demand or ask for anything like this.
The report also prompted efforts to rapidly vaccinate people. As of Friday, nearly 850,000 people in Florida had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. The percentage of Floridians with at least one partial vaccination was slightly higher than the US average, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
More than 1.5 million Floridians have tested positive for the coronavirus as a whole, and more than 24,000 have died.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has long opposed a state-wide mask mandate and in recent weeks has focused his public comments on the coronavirus on the rollout of vaccines rather than wearing a mask or ‘other mitigation efforts.
The Florida Department of Health Twitter account, which used to post regular reminders about coronavirus precautions such as wearing masks, hand washing, social distancing, and protecting the elderly and vulnerable , largely stopped such messages on Twitter a few months ago. In recent days, the Twitter account has been almost entirely devoted to sharing information on where to get vaccines and retweeting the video from DeSantis press conferences.
DeSantis has previously called some of the task force’s recommendations “problematic.” His office had previously failed to provide the weekly White House reports to the public in a timely manner, prompting the Orlando sentinel to file a complaint in December, alleging that the state was violating the law on public records.
The state settled the lawsuit earlier this month, agreeing to provide the reports on demand within two business days and pay $ 7,500 in attorney fees.
In December, the federal task force said it would only provide the reports to states if states requested them. So far Florida, through its health department, has continued to request them, although some other states have stopped doing so.
Florida reports are now provided to the public on request by the health department rather than the governor’s office.
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