Is Florida the country's next coronavirus epicenter?

[flamingdem]

https://www.theledger.com/news/20200328/is-florida-countrys-next-coronavirus-epicenter?fbclid=IwAR3Xx6BoCQiLVe0xFC_XW92lxY3dSrjTZQ_tDAyW50U-R0MzGnSn7YL-1vk

----- NOTE: As of today Florida has over 4000 (official) cases

In Naples, a city in southwest Florida where the median age is 66, a hospital abruptly stopped a drive-thru testing site this week because they ran out of testing kits. Doctors in Winter Haven, a Polk County city in Central Florida where a quarter of the population is 65 or older, are waiting up to 10 days to get results on coronavirus tests. And in South Miami, in a neighborhood surrounded by retirement homes, the president of a community hospital took out a $380,000 loan on his own house to secure the delivery of 1,000 test kits a week for the next few months.

The Sunshine State has come under fire after its beaches remained jammed with spring breakers last week and Gov. Ron DeSantis has ignored calls to issue a statewide shelter-in-place order. That may contribute to Florida becoming the next hot spot for COVID-19, a chilling possibility considering that the elderly are the most likely to die from the disease and Florida is home to nearly 4 million people 65 and over, the second-highest number in the U.S. behind California.

Yet hospitals and doctors around the state say they still don’t have nearly enough testing kits and can’t get the ones they have analyzed fast enough, echoing complaints from state health officials across the country. Health officials have completed 33,000 tests so far in Florida, as of Saturday morning, while New York is doing more than 18,000 tests a day.

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“We need many more specimen collection and testing sites that return results in 24 hours or even same day,” said Kim Savage, a spokeswoman for the Sarasota Memorial Health Care System, which operates a hospital and a dozen urgent care and outpatient care centers in southwest Florida. “Collecting a sample on a Tuesday and then not getting test results back for a week is not effective.”

DeSantis, the state’s Republican governor, has issued orders closing down bars and nightclubs, suspending public schools and ordering restaurants to scale down to take-out and delivery only. He ordered anyone flying to Florida from New York, New Jersey or Connecticut to self-isolate for 14 days upon arrival, and his Department of Health has distributed 2,500 testing kits capable of processing 625,000 samples.

But DeSantis — who also ordered a 14-day quarantine for people entering the state from hard-hit Louisiana — has resisted calls from Democrats, physician groups, local leaders and presidential candidate Joe Biden to issue a shelter-in-place order similar to those in New York and California.
“While other large states continue to take strong, urgent, and sweeping action to stop the spread of COVID-19, Florida has not,” Biden said in a statement.

That combination has left hospital officials across the state fretting that the tests available so far will not meet the demand. Hospital administrators are now trying to round up testing kits through the private market that has pitted states against states, hospitals against hospitals, and the federal government snatching up what it can.

In Naples, officials at NCH Baker Hospital Downtown opened a drive-thru testing site outside the hospital last week. But after doing 280 tests in seven days, the hospital had to shut down the facility this week after it ran low on testing kits.

NCH spokesman Shawn McConnell said they still have tests available for patients whose symptoms are severe enough to require hospitalization, but couldn’t risk running out of those tests and were forced to shut down the drive-thru.

Hospital officials are also struggling to find labs that can turn around tests quickly. Last week, doctors at the Gessler Clinic in Winter Haven were getting test results back from private lab companies Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp within two days.

“Now it’s up to seven to 10 days,” said Jose Martinez-Salas, a pulmonary physician who is part of the clinic’s coronavirus task force.

That lag is making it difficult for Gessler to accomplish its goal of becoming a first line of screening for people who may have the virus but don’t need to be hospitalized. The clinic sits across the street from Winter Haven Hospital, and Martinez-Salas said they’re creating a “cough and fever clinic” so that every person who develops a cough in Winter Haven doesn’t end up in the hospital’s emergency room.

“No hospital is equipped to handle that kind of influx of patients,” he said. “That’s not good for anybody.

A resident of the villages gets tested -

[In_The_Wind]

1. My guess would be YES.

[FM123]

2. We are getting really nervous down here in South Florida.

Of the 4,246 cases, 1,192 were in Miami-Dade and 838 were in Broward, according to the figures released by the Florida Department of Health.

Governor DeSantis is not doing enough, and since we are blue counties and useless to him - I don't know how much we can rely on him. Some of our local mayors & commissioners are great, others not so much. In my county (Broward) we are staying put and have a shelter in place order, sure hope we can keep our elders safe - there are a lot here, including my 91 year old dad.

[at140]

5. Do not rely on DeSantis for rescue

Practice prevention, then you don't have to worry too much about testing and cures.
coronavirus.gov has the info on prevention.

[FM123]

8. No, we can NOT rely on him, I think I was being much too generous in my statement...

[flamingdem]

7. I think they're under reporting cases at long term care facilities

and I'm also concerned about relatives! DeSantis will not want the real numbers coming out since he's responsible for terrible decisions. They should have shut things down long ago especially considering the average age of the residents.

https://www.local10.com/news/local/2020/03/28/broward-has-40-of-florida-coronavirus-cases-at-long-term-care-facilities/

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – As the impact of the coronavirus pandemic expands in South Florida, more residents of nursing homes and assisted living facilities are being hospitalized with coronavirus-like symptoms and authorities are not being forthcoming about the locations.

[FM123]

10. I think so too, DeSantis can not be trusted.

There are so many of our elders living in not only nursing homes & ALFs but in senior communities too (like Century Village where my dad is) and who knows what the real numbers are. I think Dr. Fauci made a comment once about numbers always being higher than we know at that moment.

[Laffy Kat]

3. It's heading there. nt

[BlueJac]

4. As a resident I say yes

We will catch up to Canada infected soon!

[at140]

11. Canada is still cool, Florida is already high 80"s

Hopefully the virus will not like Florida hot and humid weather.

[Brainfodder]

6. No, the entire deep south is? Republican Gov. states especially extra!

Expecting TX to FL to be slammed in due time?

[mucifer]

9. I think there will be multiple epicenters all at once This could have been prevented!

[Andy823]

12. Exactly

trump has filled the WH with those "loyal" to him, who don't have a clue as to what they should be doing in an emergency like this. The sad thing is trump wants to be the "king" and make all the decisions instead of listening to those who actually "do know" what needs to be done.

How many people will die who wouldn't have if we had someone besides a narcissistic asshole like trump running the country?