Florida Virus Cases Rise Sharply As DeSantis Announces Walk-Up Testing

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To increase coronavirus testing in underprivileged neighborhoods, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday heralded the opening of two walk-thru testing centers in Broward County and indicated that ones could open in Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties.

The centers, in Fort Lauderdale's historically black Sistrunk neighborhood and one in Pompano Beach where 21 percent of people live in poverty, are a way to reach people who don't have cars so they can't be tested at drive-thru locations, DeSantis said at a morning press conference in Fort Lauderdale.

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"It allows it to be brought into communities that are under-served," he said of the new testing centers.

Germaine Smith-Baugh, president and CEO of the Urban League of Broward County, said she is working with her counterparts elsewhere in the state to increase the availability of testing in black communities.

"This coronavirus is killing Africian Americans at a greater rate than any other group across the nation," Smith-Baugh said during the news conference.

A Friday morning report from the Florida Department of Health shows that minority groups are increasingly being affected by the coronavirus. But elsewhere in the country, such as New York and Detroit, black neighborhoods have been devastated by the highly contagious respiratory disease.

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The latest report from state health officials showed that the number of new cases, which had slowed in recent days, is again on the rise. The state death toll is now nearly 700.

The additional 1,221 confirmed cases reported statewide on Friday morning is a 5.3 percent increase in 24 hours. In Palm Beach County, 1,962 people are now diagnosed with the virus, a 6.6 percent increase since Thursday morning. That is the highest daily increase since Sunday night.

The report of the death of an 85-year-old man brings the county's death toll to 115. Statewide, 699 people are reported dead from COVID-19. Of those, 414 are in South Florida.

The state only reports Florida-residents who died of the disease. Non-Florida residents who died in the state are left out of the state's death toll tallies.

A governor's task force is to begin meeting today to discuss ways to reopen schools, businesses and other facets of life that have been paralyzed by the pandemic.

But, DeSantis said, it is likely Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties won't return to normal as quickly as other areas of the state.

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With a combined total of 14,171 cases, Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties continue to be the epicenter of the pandemic in Florida. State records show 58 percent of the confirmed cases and 59 percent of the deaths are in the three counties.

DeSantis said he is working with Palm Beach County Mayor Dave Kerner and leaders in the other two counties to determine how what he describes as "Phase Two" will play out.

"Maybe the next phase in Southeast Florida looks a little different," he said.

He talked about the need to reopen parks to allow people to get outdoors and scoffed at California, where he said he has seen cops converge on a solitary person jogging on the beach.

While large group gatherings still would be prohibited if parks are reopened, he said there's no reason people should be barred from enjoying the outdoors as long as they engage in social distancing. Decisions about whether to open parks, as well as other enterprises, would be made locally, he said.

Further, he said, while he would look to President Donald Trump for guidance, it will be up to him and the task force to decide how Florida will jump start its economy.

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Five-minute test results

The new walk-thru testing is part of a series of efforts to increase testing, one of the most powerful weapons to stop the disease and get life back to normal.

He said he expects testing to increase when businesses are allowed to reopen. He is banking on rapid tests being available to businesses so they can test employees to determine if they are safe to return to work.

The tests, which can give results in five minutes, are already available in some hospitals, he said.

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Still, although DeSantis bragged about the high number of tests that have been conducted statewide, roughly 34 percent of the 236,500 tests have been conducted in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, although the two counties are home to only 17 percent of the state's 21 million residents.

Even Palm Beach County, which ranks third in the state for confirmed cases and second for deaths, lags far behind its southern neighbors. As of Friday, 13,212 people had been tested in the county compared to 31,251 in Broward and nearly 50,000 in Miami-Dade counties.

Without widespread testing, epidemiologists have said there is no way to get a firm grasp on the disease and design efforts to curb its spread.

In smaller counties, testing has been sparse. For instance, in Okeechobee County, only five people have been diagnosed out of 219 who have been tested.

In the Treasure Coast, 142 have been diagnosed in Martin County, 192 in St. Lucie County, and 85 in Indian River County. There have been 15 deaths in the three counties, where roughly 6,000 people have been tested.

Florida has conducted 236,503 tests, third to California and New York. Seven states have more positive cases than Florida.

The nation has more than 672,000 cases with more than 33,000 deaths. Globally, the number of cases tops 2.18 million with 147,000 dead.

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