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Escambia County declared a local state of emergency Monday afternoon as both the county and city of Pensacola cancel all publicly permitted events with more than 50 people in response to the coronavirus.

The declaration came shortly before the Department of Health announced Escambia County had its first positive coronavirus case. Neighboring Santa Rosa County had its first last week.

On top of permitted events, Pensacola also canceled all facility reservations and rentals with more than 50 people.

Officials will reassess the situation in eight weeks following the guidelines issued from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The county also activated its Emergency Operations Center on Monday afternoon.

"We are proactively activating the EOC and declaring a local state of emergency to ensure we have the appropriate resources for this unprecedented event, " Escambia County Emergency Manager Eric Gilmore said in a county press release. "We encourage the public to follow CDC guidance for social distancing and proper health and hygiene to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in Escambia County."

On top of events that have already been canceled, the city's planned Census 2020 Kick-Off Event on Wednesday and AARP tax-aide services at the Pensacola Library, Molino Branch Library and Southwest Branch Library have been canceled.

City parks will remain open, but all programs are being suspended, with the exception of the city's spring break programs for school-aged children and senior citizen meal program done in partnership with the Council on Aging of West Florida. City community centers will be closed to the public.

The county's community centers remain open at this point, but the county will likely be closing them soon, county spokeswoman Laura Coale said Monday.

The city is working with the Council on Aging to transition the senior meal program to some type of take-out or home delivery system.

Later in the day, the CDC issued another revision to its guidelines and called for communities to limit gatherings of people to 10 or less.

Escambia County Administrator Janice Gilley told the News Journal she would have to speak with commissioners to decide how the county would respond.

"This is a very fluid incident," Gilley said. "And so I think it would be very difficult to make any definitive statements at this moment, because as you saw today, we went from 50 before 8 a.m., to the president speaking about 10 in a gathering at 2:30 pm. So, I don't want to make a definitive statement about that yet until we can have a chance to see what the impact is in Escambia County."

Robinson said at this time, he would not be ordering any restaurants or other businesses to close, but said that could change, especially if the Pensacola area sees community spread of the coronavirus.

"Community spread is important," Robinson said. "Obviously, if we get to that point, it'll change what we end up doing. But at this point, we do not see community spread. So, the things we're implementing in the way we go about, day to day, in Escambia County, at this point is because of that. If things change, we will change, and we will probably institute new policies."

In addition to the Escambia County case announced Monday afternoon, the Florida Department of Health announced four new cases of the virus in the state, bringing the total number of cases in Florida to 159. So far, four people have died in Florida due to the coronavirus, including a man in Santa Rosa .

Until Monday, it was difficult to get a coronavirus test in the area, with local doctors advising patients with symptoms to stay home and self-quarantine as a test was not available.

The first drive-thru testing clinic was opened Monday and the Ascension Sacred Heart call center received 211 calls by 10:30 a.m. Monday and directed 51 people to get the test in just 90 minutes after pre-screening their symptoms.

During his morning press conference, Robinson said he believes there are probably people in the community who have the virus and are not showing symptoms, but defended his position of not taking further action until there was community spread of the virus.

"We haven't gotten to that stage at this particular time," Robinson said. "Again, other communities, both within the United States and the state of Florida are already there. We are not there. That doesn't say we won't get there. But we are positioning ourselves with certain thresholds. When we hit those thresholds, we will institute new policies."

Although there were no cases yet confirmed, Robinson said small businesses, especially restaurant owners, should begin planning for the worst.

"If we reach a certain impact, I would tell restaurants to begin to think how they can either provide food for delivery or take-out in the event that something does happen with community spread," Robinson said. "Again, anything can change, and we will change with the circumstances."

Robinson said he would be drafting a letter to the state and the federal government requesting a financial assistance program for workers who miss out on work because of closures related to the coronavirus.

"Even though there'll be this period of slowdown, we want them to be able to keep their job as best they can," Robinson said.

Jim Little can be reached at jwlittle@pnj.com or 850-208-9827.