JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry said the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the state of Florida and the City of Jacksonville is an economic shock that is unprecedented, and highlighted ways they're making adjustments to support the public.
The message was delivered at the testing site located in Lot J near TIAA Bank Field, where they met for an update on their efforts to combat the spread of COVID-19 Friday afternoon. They were joined by the Division of Emergency Management Director Jared Moskowitz and the Florida National Guard Assistant Adjutant General John Haas.
DeSantis said the Lot J site alone has gone through thousands of tests for residents of Northeast Florida. That federal testing site was under contract through April 10, but after the federal staff members left, DeSantis said they supplemented with state resources in order to keep the site going.
The governor said unemployment compensation is a top priority. They have received a total of 225,755 initial filed claims that still need to be processed as of Friday afternoon and nearly 12,000 applications by paper. He thanked Federal Express for offering their stores as drop-off locations and then sending those applications to Tallahassee.
DeSantis acknowledged that there have been problems with the unemployment websites and call centers that they are working to address. He has brought on around 2,000 state employees from various agencies to actively help with the unemployment process or to be on standby to help. He said they continue to try to beef up the call center in an effort to meet the growing demand.
“You're seeing this throughout the country," DeSantis said, "but the amount of unemployment claims nationwide in just a few week period, I think it took us a year or certainly many months to be able to reach this level of claims during the Great Recession, so this is a shock like we have never seen before. So we’re shifting as many resources to this as we can to be able to meet this real crushing demand.”
DeSantis announced that FEMA has decided to step in and help with sending supplies now that the federal testing sites will continue to run through the state. The state will be increasing the number of tests per day and will be expanding the testing criteria.
Starting on Monday, DeSantis said all three drive-thru testing sites, in Jacksonville, Orlando and Miami, will test anyone with coronavirus symptoms, regardless of age, as well as all first responders, health care workers and medical facility staff members. They will also allow testing for anyone who has interacted with or had extended exposure to someone who may have tested positive for COVID-19 but is not experiencing symptoms.
So far DeSantis said they have completed 163,000 tests statewide, but thousands more are still awaiting results.
They are pushing to acquire "rapid tests" for hospitals and medical facilities across the state, which DeSantis said are "game changers."
DeSantis said there is a 45-minute test that has been distributed throughout the State of Florida by the company Cephiod. He said there is also a 5-minute test by Avid Labs that recently came on the market and was given to some hospitals systems in Florida, including St. Vincent hospitals.
Additionally, they are working to acquire a new "antibody" test to see if anyone built up an immunity to the virus.
He said "this is not the only coronavirus that circulates," so an antibody test could find out if someone who was asymptomatic developed any antibodies, which could provide them a sense of how much the virus has penetrated the community and if it could work against other strands. He said learning more about people who have COVID-19 but are asymptomatic will give them a more accurate denominator when determining who is susceptible.
As far as travel guidelines go, DeSantis said they continue to screen people who come into Florida from "hot spots" around the country by car or plane. They are met by authorities once they enter the state and are told to self-isolate for 14 days.
So far he said they have screened 17,000 people coming from New York City and New Orleans over the past week and a half.
He said hospital bed capacity hasn't become a major problem yet, but they are creating contingency plans in southern, central and northeast Florida.
Statewide, DeSantis said 44% of hospital beds are available and 40% of ICU beds are available. In Duval County, 45% of hospitals beds are available and 48% of ICU beds are available.
He said a main priority continues to be the protections of older residents in nursing homes and long term care facilities.
"Clearly this is a virus that presents specific danger to the elderly," said DeSantis.
He said there is an outbreak at a nursing home facility in Suwanee County where 51 people are currently infected with COVID-19, including 30 staff members. DeSantis said the facility is under investigation. So far they have been able to trace the beginning of the outbreak to an employee.
Mayor Lenny Curry said they are working to meet the demand for testing in Jacksonville, but reminded people that the Jacksonville testing sites would be closed for Easter Sunday to allow people to be with their families.
“To our Jewish brothers and sisters that are celebrating Passover and those of us who are Christians remembering Good Friday and looking forward to the resurrection on Sunday, it’s a reminder that we all care about each other, we all count on each other, we are going to come out of this and look forward to a new day, because we are all doing the right things," Curry said.
Starting on Monday, Curry said the Florida National Guard would be coming in to the testing site to run shifts. Their involvement at the testing sites will allow the local law enforcement and first responders there to return to their other duties in the community.
Director Moskowitz said they continue to work on providing protective equipment to health care workers across the state and they are awaiting another shipment of N95 masks from the federal government.
Moskowitz said they are running the "largest logistics mission in state history" as they work 24/7 to distribute more equipment and protective gear. He said they delivered millions of supplies to health care workers on Thursday, which was their biggest distribution to date.
They are working with FEMA, Health and Human Services and some private vendors in the state to keep that process moving and hopefully expanding.
He said over the last 3 weeks they "deployed $220 million worth of reimbursement," which was taken mostly from Hurricane Irma funds. They sent those funds to cities, counties and hospitals across the state in their fight against COVID-19. He said that brought the division to $2 billion in a 16-month timeline, which is the most the division has ever handed out in that timeline "by double."
"We know that money is critical in these times," Moskowitz said.
Moving forward, DeSantis said they are finding new ways to help older residents in nursing home facilities since they can't have much, if any, human interaction right now outside of approved health care workers. So they are working to get tablets in nursing homes so residents can FaceTime their families.
They are also working to get those rapid tests into nursing homes.
He said it is still an "all hands on deck" situation with their government employees. They are utilizing everyone from every agency to bring these efforts to a reality.
His next focus is making sure people get the unemployment checks they need and funds from the federal government, which should be coming out sooner than expected.