



With 39 new cases reported early Sunday, the number of novel coronavirus cases in Florida is now over 100 as test kits are being distributed across the state, and officials said the number of people diagnosed positive will continue to increase sharply.

South Florida — with three international airports, busy cargo and passenger shipping ports, and a large concentration of elderly — continues to be the epicenter of that growth with more than half of all positive cases diagnosed so far.

Broward County alone has 36 cases, including a group of young people who all traveled as a group to Europe, reportedly Ireland, and exposed their relatives to the virus. The World Health Organization on Saturday called Europe the new epicenter of the pandemic.

On Sunday, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the state would partner with Memorial Healthcare and the Florida National Guard to start mobile drive-through testing in Broward. He said he’s also asked the state’s Department of Health for as much "amplifying information" as possible regarding positive COVID-19 tests, possibly to see details on clusters within counties.

"This is a situation that has continued to evolve rapidly," he told reporters at the state Emergency Operations Center in Tallahassee.

The state also reported its fourth death this weekend, a 77-year-old Lee County man related to a woman who tested positive after she died.

He and other officials continued to stress the need for “social distancing,” mentioning that he was not ordering bars and restaurants to close, however. Still, as Florida Health Secretary and state Surgeon General Scott Rivkees said Sunday, "The best way to avoid getting COVID-19 is to avoid crowds.”

Indeed, precautionary measures to mitigate and contain the spread of the virus that causes the deadly COVID-19 illness is critical now, officials said, especially in light of comments made Saturday by Dr. Anthony Fauci, of the President’s Coronavirus Task Force, that the disease will peak in 6-8 weeks.

On NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday, Fauci said “Americans are going to have to hunker down significantly more than we as a country are doing.”

Fauci also said the country should take more extreme measures to slow the spread of the disease. “I would prefer as much as we possibly could. I think we should really be overly aggressive and get criticized for overreacting,” he said.

The U.S. has more than 3,200 reported cases and 62 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.

DeSantis had previously activated the state EOC to its highest level to help marshal resources and coordinate state agencies.

Also, after a week of denying there was community spread — people testing positive for the virus but who had no history of international travel — DeSantis conceded that it is now evident to some degree. But he said most of the cases appear travel-related and that he’d ask the White House about restricting flights into Florida.

The youngest positive case so far is a 17-year-old from Cuba who is now in Hillsborough County.

North Florida sees rise in cases

The number of cases in North Florida is growing, too. Two new cases were reported by Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry on Twitter Saturday night, bringing the total in Duval County to four. Curry said state health officials told him they expect more positive results today. State health officials don’t list ages for three Duval cases.

New cases were reported in Baker, Clay, St. Johns and Alachua counties, as well.

On Sunday, a 65-year-old woman from New York who is in Alachua County tested positive for COVID-19, becoming the fourth person in the county to test positive for the disease.

Several new cases emerged in Central Florida, including a TSA worker at Orlando International Airport, WFTV in Orlando first reported.

The number of non-Florida residents infected is growing as well. Two of the new cases include a Connecticut woman in Baker County and woman from New York in Alachua County. That brings the number of non-Florida residents to nine.

DeSantis also has asked the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to release 61 Florida residents who were previously aboard the Grand Princess voyage outside of California from Dobbins Air Force Base in Georgia.

The governor Saturday ordered all nursing homes to bar visitors for 30 days. He also extended all nursing home licenses for 90 days and 30 days for other group home facilities so that staff would not “be distracted” during the crisis.

Following federal guidelines, the state has ordered the cancellation of all events of more than 250 people. Universities, colleges and public schools have closed. Cruise lines have announced they are suspending voyages and tourist attractions are shutting down.

The state has received 1,000 of 2,500 new test kits from Integrated DNA Testing, an Iowa firm that contracted with the CDC to provide test kits after CDC’s in-house kits were found to give faulty results. Another shipment of test kits is expected today.

As the number of diagnosed cases grows, so does the number of cases that are still under investigation. That’s because the private labs that have been enlisted to help with the load can only test patients, officials said. Once they get a positive result, they deliver that to the Department of Health to conduct the epidemiological investigation.

More people will be needed to process the results, so DeSantis has directed the Department of Health to hire additional epidemiologists from university health programs to help with workload.