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Florida News That Impacts You – July 14th, 2022
Bottom Line: Your daily recap of the biggest news from around the state that impacts you in South Florida.
- Gas prices are another two cents lower on average statewide today. The average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gas is $4.33 per gallon. In Southeast Florida prices range from a low of $4.43 in Miami-Dade to a high of $4.57 in the Palm Beaches.
- COVID-19 cases have risen to the highest levels since Florida was recovering from the winter surge of omicron cases in February. After Wednesday’s reporting, Florida’s weekly trend for daily cases is now 11,500 – the highest since February 13th. Health authorities have identified the current omicron subvariant is largely immune from natural immunity from other strains and available vaccinations.
- Florida’s ports have reported record cargo activity over the past year. On back of restrictive Covid policies and supply chain issues in other states, Florida’s ports saw a 75% increase in cargo activity from pre-pandemic conditions. Last year Governor DeSantis and port authorities from across the state encouraged shippers to reroute their ships to Florida’s ports to avoid supply-chain issues in other states. The result was over $70 billion in additional economic activity generated through Florida’s ports. The biggest increases were seen at Port Canaveral, PortMiami, Port Everglades and JAXPORT in that order.
- An update from Citizens Property Insurance – the state’s insurer of last resort – indicates Citizens is on pace to have 1.2 million policies in force by the end of the year. That would be a near-threefold increase in policies over two years ago as Florida’s property insurance crisis, largely brought about by litigation issues against Florida insurers, has resulted in the collapsing of several insurers. The state held a special session addressing the crisis in the spring, however the effect of most reforms aren’t immediately felt in the insurance market.