In the White House guidelines for state’s to re-open during the coronavirus pandemic there are several criteria states should satisfy before beginning a phased reopening.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced earlier this week Florida will begin phase one of a gradual reopening. The first stage begins Monday.
Here’s where Florida stands on the White House guidelines:
The first category is symptoms.
States should have a downward trajectory of influenza-like symptoms reported within a 14 day period, according to the guidelines.
To determine if Florida meets the White House guidelines, News 6 referred to the state’s flu report which shows flu activity is decreasing in the state.
The guidelines also recommend a downward trajectory of COVID-19 syndromic cases, or trends in emergency room visits based on COVID-19-like illness symptoms.
The state tracks these cases, however, those numbers are not made public, so News 6 can’t verify if the state meets this standard.
Because of that we gave this category, “Be Careful” on the trust index.
After reviewing this topic, we've found some issues - Be Careful.
The next category is new cases of the novel coronavirus.
According to the guidelines, prior to reopening states should have a downward trajectory of documented cases or a downward trajectory of positive tests as a percent of total tests with a 14-day period, according to the guidelines.
According the states coronavirus dashboard, Florida’s percentage of positive cases over the last 14 days have trended downward. So that is true.
We’ve reviewed information surrounding this topic and confirmed that It’s True.
The last category is hospitals.
Hospitals should treat all patients without crisis care and have a robust testing program in place for at-risk healthcare workers, including antibody testing, according to the guidelines.
Based on the number of available beds and the amount of testing in the Central Florida area through Advent Health, and a number of other public and private testing options, we would say that’s also true.
We’ve reviewed information surrounding this topic and confirmed that It’s True.
While positive COVID-19 cases are trending downward, Florida have seen the highest daily death totals in the past two weeks but the White House guidelines do not address deaths.
As of Friday, Florida health officials are reporting more than 34,700 case of coronavirus statewide, including 1,314 deaths.