White House COVID report: ‘Florida is in full pandemic resurgence.’

Florida is now painted in red — for increase in the number of COVID-19 cases, for test positivity and high levels of community transmission in nearly 90% of the counties, according to the Jan. 3White House COVID-19 Task Force report obtained by the Orlando Sentinel.

“Florida has seen an increase in new cases despite a significant decrease in tests performed, an increase in test positivity, and rapidly rising hospitalizations,” said the report. “Florida is in full pandemic resurgence and must increase mitigation, along with an active COVID vaccination program to decrease community spread and save lives.”

Miami-Dade, Broward and Orange counties, in that order, account for 36% of COVID-19 cases in Florida.

The Jan. 3 task force report, along with three others from December, were released a day after the state agreed to settle its lawsuit with the Orlando Sentinel, joined by the South Florida Sun Sentinel, over delays in providing the weekly Task Force reports.

As part of the settlement, the state has agreed to release the future weekly task force reports within two business days and pay $7,500 in attorney fees.

The four weekly reports that were released, starting Dec. 13, document the continued deterioration of COVID-19 metrics in Florida. On Thursday, Florida set a record for the number of COVID-19 cases, reporting nearly 20,000 confirmed infections.

Meanwhile, Gov. Ron DeSantis has turned his attention away from the virus spread and toward the vaccine rollout.

In response to questions about increasing cases and hospitalizations in recent days, DeSantis has repeated one message: trusting people to use common sense, without elaborating on what he means.

The task force reports repeatedly and clearly urge state officials to encourage masks and other mitigation efforts to contain the spread of the virus.

“Focus on uniform behavioral change including masking, physical distancing, hand hygiene, no indoor gatherings outside of the immediate households, and ensuring every American understands the clear risks of ANY family or friend interactions outside of their immediate household indoors without masks,” said the Dec. 13 report.

“Florida is not adequately mitigating, resulting in surging cases, hospitalizations, and high cases among long-term care facilities’ staff,” said the Dec. 20 report. “Preventing a post- Christmas/Kwanzaa surge is critical through clear and continuous messaging: ‘To preserve our hospital system for you, we need you to wear masks, physically distance, wash hands, and avoid crowds and social gatherings beyond your immediate family.’”

“No unmasked public gatherings are safe and no indoor private gatherings are safe without all members fully masked, unless all members are actively taking the same precautions and regularly test negative,” said the Dec. 27 report.

And on Jan. 3, the task force wrote: “Florida’s post-holiday numbers raise significant concerns with rising test positivity and increasing hospitalizations, suggesting a resurgence of community spread. This requires a combination of aggressive mitigation with further restrictions and substantial acceleration of vaccinations, utilizing all pathways from pharmacies, from high throughput sites and a simplification of vaccine tiers to single age bands (e.g.: everyone over 65). Creating complexity is resulting in poor immunization rates.”

The Jan. 3 report is the first of the weekly task force reports to put emphasis on vaccinations.

“Do not delay the rapid immunization of those over 65 and vulnerable to severe disease; recommend creation of high throughput vaccination sites with use of EMT personnel to monitor for potential anaphylaxis and fully utilize nursing students. No vaccines should be in freezers but should instead be put in arms now; active and aggressive immunization in the face of this surge would save lives,” said the report.

As of Jan. 7, Florida had received 1.15 million doses of vaccine and has administered 339,000 doses, according to the federal numbers. DeSantis has promised that the vaccination rates will accelerate now that the holidays are over.

Staff and residents at more nursing homes are also testing positive for the virus, the reports show.

On Dec. 13, 41% of nursing homes were reporting at least once case of COVID-19 in staff. That percentage increased to 46% on Dec. 20 and 27 and to 50% on Jan. 3.

On Jan. 3, the state had a 13% increase in new COVID-19 hospitalizations compared to the week before. And the numbers have continued to increase since.

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