Thursday, May 28, 2020

Florida Shows Evidence-based Response to Reopening Works

More than half of the state's known cases of Covid-19 are found in just four South Florida counties-the top out-of-state destinations for fleeing New Yorkers.

The state's rate of positive samples-a sign of testing capacity relative to size of outbreak-stands at 2.41 percent as of May 24, well below the World Health Organization's threshold of 5 percent for safely reopening.

Florida counts more than 350,000 people living or working in such facilities, and the state has one of the highest shares of residents over the age of 65.

At the start of the outbreak, Florida deployed rapid-response teams to these facilities to test, treat, and, if necessary, isolate or quarantine residents testing positive for the virus.

While New York was moving sick patients into nursing homes, Florida was moving them out.

Louisville's Courier-Journal has praised Beshear's response while declaring that Lee has "Taken more heat than Prince's Hot Chicken for his slow response to the coronavirus outbreak." Even an ocean away, Beshear won praise: the U.K.'s Guardian celebrated his "Quick pandemic response, his calm, empathetic briefings" and likened him to "Mr. Rogers." Yet Kentucky has now suffered more deaths than Tennessee from the virus, though the latter state's population is half again larger.

Florida considers numerous factors in deciding when and how to reopen, such as whether the state is controlling the virus's spread, containing new cases, ensuring hospital capacity, and monitoring vulnerable populations.

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