WUWF Coronavirus Live Blog

At the height of the summer tourist season, Florida’s largest cities and counties are closing beaches, ordering masks to be worn, and stopping business reopenings because of a jump in coronavirus.

“When we saw those first 9,000 cases pop up at the end of last week, that was a warning sign or red flag to a lot of us that we were sort of already at that point of its gotten worse,” said Dr. Cindy Prins, an epidemiologist and medical professor at the University of Florida.

And she’s warning that things, in fact, are likely to get worse before they get better.

Pensacola Mayor Grover Robinson used much of his weekly virtual news conference Monday, to elaborate on his decision to make face coverings mandatory in businesses inside the city proper.

On Friday, the mayor issued state of emergency 20-03, which requires both staff and customers to wear a mask.

After stops in Fort Myers and Orlando last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis continued his tour of Florida medical centers on Sunday, with a stop at Ascension Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola.

As of Sunday, there were 8,530 new positive cases reported with 29 fatalities, according to the Florida Department of Health. Florida broke its single-day record for COVID-19 cases again Saturday with 9,585 cases in 24 hours. That brings the overall total of 141,000 cases and 3,419 fatalities.

Having enrolled more than 300 people for an expanded Meals on Wheels program the past two weeks in EscaRosa, there’s now a call for more volunteers to deliver them.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created the need for hundreds of additional meals, says Will Wirth, program manager at the Council on Aging of West Florida. But it’s not the sole reason for the jump – enter a partnership between COA and Primal Nosh.

Gov. Ron DeSantis is again rejecting the notion of a statewide mandatory use of face masks to protect against the coronavirus – despite a massive increase in such cases.

For the fifth time in six days, Florida has topped the 3,000 mark in new COVID-19 cases.  As of Wednesday, Escambia County recorded a massive jump overnight, increasing 88 positive cases for a total of 1,312. Santa Rosa increased 16 cases, bringing its total to 371.

Florida is reporting nearly 3,500 new cases of the coronavirus, a dip from the record-breaking numbers of recent days. However, there are no changes on the horizon when it comes to Pensacola’s reopening schedule.

Last Friday, The University Of West Florida Board Of Trustees approved a draft plan to reopen the school to students in the fall. That plan was approved by the Florida Board of Governors Tuesday.

“I’ll ask for a motion to approve the University of West Florida reopening plan for Fall of 2020,” said UWF Board of Trustees Chairman Dave Cleveland during a virtual board meeting on Friday morning, asking for board approval of the university’s draft plans to reopen in the Fall. The plan was unanimously approved.

In 2010, Grover Robinson was serving his year as chairman of the Escambia County Commission, and representing the district containing Pensacola Beach. On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon exploded off Louisiana, killing 11 and sending crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

“I don’t think anybody in our part of the world really focused on it too much,” said Robinson. “We thought, ‘Hey, there’s something out there that’s not going to be that big of a deal and they’re going to get it taken care of.”

In an effort to curb the coronavirus pandemic, all large gatherings have been canceled for the foreseeable future. That has meant smaller graduation ceremonies or none at all, no concerts, plays, or college or professional sports events.

For the future USS Tripoli, it means the scrapping of plans for a grand commissioning ceremony that had been scheduled in Pensacola later this month.

More citizen input for the police department and monitoring coronavirus – two of the main items on Pensacola Mayor Grover Robinson’s plate during his weekly news conference on Monday.

The mayor pointed to recent upticks in the number of cases and testing percentages. But he adds they’re still under the April and May figures.