A new White House Coronavirus Task Force report labels Florida a red zone for coronavirus cases and calls on authorities to ramp up mitigation efforts, including restaurant capacity limits and mask mandates that Gov. Ron DeSantis seems to have ruled out.
The report was obtained by the Washington-based Center for Public Integrity and released to the public earlier this month. COVID-19 cases in Florida now number 101 per 100,000 residents, the 41st highest rate in the nation, the report says.
“Florida is in the red zone for test positivity, indicating a rate at or above 10.1 percent, with the 33rd highest rate in the country,” the report states. “Rankings are almost irrelevant as the entire country is surging.”
As of Dec. 16, the coronavirus positivity rate in Florida dipped slightly to 8.84 percent, according to the Florida Department of Health. Meanwhile, the number of new COVID-19 cases in the state went from 8,292 on Dec. 13 to 13,164 just three days later, according to the department’s data.
DeSantis minimized the impact of restaurant dining on coronavirus cases during a recent press conference at the Okeechobee Steakhouse in West Palm Beach.
“Most of the contact tracing that’s been done has restaurants as very low as places where these infections can be traced to,” the governor said, adding that individuals should be allowed to make health decisions that they are comfortable with.
The Coronavirus Task Force report, however, advocates tougher actions in the state, since the current vaccine distributions won’t substantially reduce the virus’ spread until 100 million Americans with pre-existing conditions can be immunized.
“Ensure masks at all times in public; increase physical distancing through significant reduction in capacity or closure of public and private indoor spaces, including restaurants and bars,” the report says.
The White House panel’s recommendations also call for “an additional focus on uniform behavioral change including masking, physical distancing, hand hygiene, no indoor gatherings outside of immediate households, and aggressive testing to find the asymptomatic Individuals responsible for the majority of infectious spread.”
The Governor’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the report. The Center for Public Integrity said its efforts to make the federal reports public have helped media outlets to better scrutinize state coronavirus policies.
"Since we started obtaining and publishing these reports this summer, many local media outlets across all 50 states have used the information in those reports to hold their state officials accountable – for example, in cases when state leaders have gone against the report recommendations on the wearing of masks in their states,” Mei Fong, spokeswoman for the center, told the Florida Record in an email.