5th Covid Death in Eight Days in Flagler; 9 Year Old Dies in Putnam; Florida Reports Record 173 Deaths

The nation passed the 4 million mark in known coronavirus cases today, twice as many as the country nearest in numbers–Brazil, at just over 2 million. Florida recorded its youngest fatality yet, a 9-year-old girl in Putnam County. And in an unnerving indication of the Florida surge’s effects on the economy, another 100,000 Floridians filed first-time unemployment claims in the week that ended July 18, in addition to the 132,000 who filed the week before. Only Georgia and California had higher weekly figures. In June, the numbers in Florida had fallen to five figures.

The latest person to die locally is a 73-year-old man and a resident of Seminole County who was in treatment here and who died Wednesday, Bob Snyder, the health department chief, said this morning. He is the second non-county resident to have died in the county, bringing the total number of Covid-related deaths in the county to at least 10. The eighth death affecting a county resident was recorded Wednesday, regarding a 92-year-old man.

The state Department of Health today recorded 30 new cases in Flagler, for a total of 112 in the first five days of the week out of 997 tests performed, for a positivity rate of 11.2 percent–at least according to the state report (see the numbers here). The local health department, however, has been reporting a lower positivity rate based on testing numbers that include antigen tests, which tend to dilute the positivity rate with a much higher incidence of inaccurate tests: the county report reflects 1,492 tests, as opposed to just under 1,000 in the state report, and 105 positive tests, for a positivity rate of 7 percent in the last five days.

By either calculation, Flagler County’s positivity rate is rising, and remains well above the 3 percent threshold Snyder says is the safer point at which society can open more broadly.

Locally, the trends of people going to the local emergency room with flu-like or Covid-like symptoms are also rising: the number of people with Covid-like symptoms rose to near 60 in the week of July 12, a new peak. Statewide, however, the number of people going to emergency rooms peaked the week of July 5 at just under 16,000, and has declined since to about 13,000, a sign that the surge may be ebbing. Cough-associated admissions in emergency rooms across the state have also declined, as have people reporting influenza-like illnesses.

Hospitals are experiencing a surge in patients throughout the Sun Belt. The worst-hit areas in Texas and Florida have approached the peak rates of hospitalization that New York, New Orleans, Chicago and other cities hit in the spring,” the New York Times reports this afternoon. “A wide and growing expanse of hot spots around the country — including Las Vegas, Nashville and Tulsa, Okla. — have worsened over the past two weeks.”

The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration reports today that intensive care bed capacity is down to 15 percent across the state, and at 11 percent in Flagler (with two ICU beds available). Overall bed capacity is at 22 percent in the state and at 12 percent at AdventHealth Palm Coast.

The large majority of people who develop Covid-19 complications, require hospitalization or die are 55 or older or have underlying health conditions that predispose them to complications. The list of underlying complications is long and includes such common ailments as heart disease, diabetes, pulmonary issues and cancer. But children are not immune: according to the latest pediatrics report by the state Department of Health, five children 17 or younger have died of the disease, 246 have been hospitalized, and 23,170 have tested positive across the state. Until today, no child 9 or younger had been reported to have died of the disease.

That changed today, with a 9-year-old girl in Putnam County dying after contracting the disease. The Florida Department of Health reported her death today, but listed the date she was counted as July 18. She is not listed as having had contact with a known Covid-19 carrier. She is the 12th Covid Putnam resident fatality. The next-youngest fatality in the county was a 55-year-old man.

The numbers are significant in light of discussions at school boards across the state (and the nation) regarding the reopening of schools. While children are less susceptible to complications or death from Covid, they are nevertheless still potent carriers and disseminators of the disease, especially from age 10 onward, studies show.

In another development not reported until today, four residents at Hanifan’s Cozy Home, a group home at 66 Russell Drive in Palm Coast, tested positive and were transferred out.

“Four ended up in the hospital, three are there now, one has been discharged, and moved to another home,” Snyder said today.

Palm Coast issued the certificate of occupancy to the group home in May 2018.

The home falls under the licensing aegis of the state Agency for Persons with Disabilities. It cares for individuals–not elderly–with either emotional or physical disabilities. It is one of some 20 such homes in the county. “We went back and did an infection control prevention follow up visit,” Snyder said. “These were part of the 72 congregate care facilities that we initially, back in early April, did an infection prevention control assessment.”

The four individuals transferred out are among 93 residents who have tested positive in such group homes across the state and 52 who have been transferred out. The state is reporting 186 staff members who have tested positive in group homes statewide, none in Flagler. In larger long-term care facilities, no new positive cases, either among residents or staff members, have been reported since earlier this month.

Florida reported 10,249 cases today and a single-day record of 173 deaths, for a total of 5,518 deaths. Florida remains the epicenter of the post-reopening surge in the nation, with 360 cases per 100,000 residents in the last seven days. Louisiana is second with 327. While Florida, Texas and Arizona have drawn much of the attention through the summer surge, cases have been now been surging in Alabama and Mississippi as well, and many states are reporting single-day records. Today, the nation passed the 4 million mark in cumulative cases, twice the total in Brazil (though the numbers have been surging there as well), with more than 145,000 deaths. An estimated 2 million people have recovered from the disease in the United States.

Currently only the Northeast is seeing low new numbers of infections or deaths, after itself being the epicenter of the pandemic in the nation last April.

Yet Gov. Ron DeSantis, appearing today on the Fox News show “Fox & Friends,” disputed that his economic reopening efforts that started May 4 have accounted for the state’s surge in cases of Covid-19, though there is a direct correlation between the reopening and the explosion of cases, as was the case in other states that reopened heedlessly. With select exceptions, such as the April closure of bars and sit-down restaurants and short-term vacation rentals and the shifting of schools to online education, DeSantis never imposed statewide mandates otherwise, leaving it to counties to craft their own responses. He’s backed a normal reopening of school this fall, though innumerable districts, including Flagler, have opted to delay reopening in person instruction and DeSantis faces a lawsuit from the state’s teachers unions, who claim the reopening is premature and unsafe, and should take place only through remote instruction.

Nevertheless, DeSantis again downplayed the severity of the surge and did what he’s done repeatedly over the last two months: shift blame to the media and make misleading or inaccurate claims.

“I think people are always trying to, you know, do political blame. But I do think that trends are much more positive today than they were two weeks ago,” DeSantis said. “We peaked on the emergency department visits for COVID-like illness on July 7. And we’ve seen a general flattening in the hospital (admissions) for COVID. … You’re starting to get stabilization. Our positivity rate is slightly down from where it was, which we think will continue.”

The “stabilization” at between 9,000 and 10,000 daily new cases is taking place as testing labs are experiencing a crushing backlog in testing capacity, which depresses the actual number of positive cases across the state, including in Flagler, where testing delays have been just as pronounced. Even if the “stabilization” the governor is referring to were not affected by testing delays, stabilizing at a rate of 9,000 to 10,000 new cases a day remains catastrophic in light of the continued surge in deaths the numbers project.

The “stabilization” is not helping businesses, who have again seen an erosion in public confidence or demand for services, reflected in the unemployment numbers. Since March 15, the News Service of Florida reports, more than 3.2 million unemployment applications have been filed in Florida, with more than 3 million considered “unique.” Of the unique claims, more than 2.75 million had been processed as of Wednesday, with nearly 1.79 million claimants paid. The state had distributed $11.25 billion in state and federal benefits, of which $2.5 billion was state money. Negotiations continued Thursday in Washington, D.C., on another stimulus package. Part of the debate has involved whether to extend additional federal unemployment benefits. A $600-a-week supplemental benefit was approved in a March stimulus package, but it is slated to expire.