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Florida’s reports 738 new COVID-19 cases - lowest in roughly 4 months

The number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in Florida and Palm Beach County plummeted on Monday to the lowest levels in roughly four months, the Florida Department of Health reported.

The 738 new cases reported statewide is the lowest increase since June 2 when 617 new diagnoses were added. It also marks the first time since June 2 that the number of new cases fell into triple digits.

In July, the state was adding more than 11,100 cases a day.

Likewise, the 27 new cases reported in the county is the lowest since May 27 when 26 additional people learned they were infected with the highly contagious respiratory disease. It is only the fourth time since June 4 that fewer than 100 cases have been logged on a single day.

Florida schools reopened as teachers, families feared COVID-19 spike. New data shows otherwise.

Many teachers and families feared a spike in COVID-19 cases when Florida made the controversial push to reopen schools in August with in-person instruction.

But a USA TODAY analysis shows the state’s positive case count among kids aged 5 to 17 declined through late September after a peak in July. Among the counties seeing surges in overall cases, it’s college-age adults – not school children – driving the trend, the analysis found.

The early results in Florida show the success of rigorous mask-wearing, social distancing, isolating contacts, and quick contact tracing when necessary, said health experts.

‘He just lies’: Florida’s senior voters suddenly are in play

Florida seniors, long an unflinching bloc of reliable GOP votes, are suddenly in play as President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus has his reelection campaign on the defensive.

The pandemic and anxiety about possible cuts to entitlement programs have eroded the GOP’s once-solid advantage with the battleground state’s retirees, recent polls show, a demographic Republicans have won by double digits in recent presidential races.

“I really got sick of him when he did not wear a mask, and he took the control totally away from the governors. It was a very bad situation,” said Joy Solomon, a 65-year-old from Boca Raton who voted for Trump in 2016 largely because that’s who her husband supported, but who has now turned against the president. “I want this place to come back to some sense of normalcy.”

Florida's Hunt For Chinese Communist Ties Comes Up Empty-Handed

Florida sent letters to 100,000 businesses and entities registered as vendors with the state in June, asking if they were “owned or controlled by the Communist Party of China.”

Months later, that hunt for Chinese communists has come up empty handed, with the state unable to cite a single company owned or controlled by the Communist Party of China that it has identified through the effort.

Instead of finding communists, the state effort gave many Floridians a scare that the state was engaging in the kind of political fear mongering and list-making that marked the darkest days of the Cold War, according to responses reviewed by WLRN.