Florida News – Highlights from around the state – April 7th
Bottom Line: Your daily recap of the some of the biggest news from around the state that impacts you in South Florida.
- Governor DeSantis announced the state has added server capacity sufficient to process over 120,000 unemployment claims at a time while still working to add additional capacity. Also, he stated the DEO website for unemployment claims has been given redundancy which it lacked previously.
- The governor also announced a new executive order waving the cost of doc stamps for the processing of SBA loans in Florida. This will allow small businesses federal aid without any cost or obligations other than compliance with the federal law regarding the aid.
- The University of Washington coronavirus model, which has been the most widely used by public officials, now projects the virus peaking in Florida on April 21st, that’s nearly two weeks earlier than last week’s model predication.
- New five-minute COVID-19 tests from Abbot Labs are now in use in hospitals throughout the state. DeSantis called the tests a game changer.
- Florida Prepaid announced that all payments due to the program have been deferred to July 20th without penalty. All payment schedules will simply extend for an additional three months.
- An Oxford Economics study of the state economies most negatively impacted by the coronavirus ranks Florida as 4th nationally due to our reliance on tourism, travel and leisure activities. Maine is the most negatively impacted due to demographics and a reliance on small businesses.