Florida News – Highlights from around the state – April 20th
Bottom Line: Your daily recap of the some of the biggest news from around the state that impacts you in South Florida.
- The latest model by the institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation along with the University of Washington suggests Florida has passed the peak of deaths due to the coronavirus. The latest update suggests the peak was April 2nd and dramatically lowered the projected death count in Florida to fewer than 1,400. Florida has 774 COVID-19 related deaths as of this update.
- Governor DeSantis ordered all of Florida K-12 schools to finish the school year virtually ending speculation that schools may return to session for the remaining few weeks of the year.
- Florida’s Task Force on reopening the state will be announced and begin meetings today and is set to issue guidance by the end of the week to Governor DeSantis. This as the current trajectory of the virus in Florida suggests we might be on pace to enter phase 1 reopening under the Trump administration’s plan May 1st.
- DeSantis has ordered full disclosure of all elder care facilities with COVID-19 cases after it was determined that 20% of all Florida cases have derived from these homes. Additionally, the Florida National Guard will be testing every employee at these facilities for COVID-19. Two operators of a facility in Tallahassee had their nursing home administrator licenses suspended due to poor conditions.