Florida Coronavirus Deaths To Peak On May 6, Gov DeSantis Promises 1 Million N95 Masks

Florida is arming itself with masses of newly delivered medical equipment and gear as it moves closer to its projected peak COVID-19 death day of May 6.

Gov. Rick DeSantis said Florida will distribute one million N95 face masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) urgently needed by healthcare workers fighting against COVID-19. In addition to the N95s, the Florida Division of Emergency Management intended to deliver other supplies, including 1.2 million procedure masks, 100,000 face shields 500,000 gloves, 60,000 containers of hand sanitizer and 35,000 gowns over the next two days.

“That is a massive amount of equipment,” said DeSantis. “It’s more than the division has ever done in Florida’s history.”

He said there were 1,135 cases of COVID-19 reported in Florida long-term care facilities as of Tuesday (April 14) morning.

“We want to expand that as widely as we can, it’s very, very important that we focus resources on those people who are the most vulnerable to COVID-19,” he pointed out.

A widely used statistical model from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington, predicted 128 deaths by May 6, 125 by May 8 and 115 by May 20. Thirty-one deaths were foreseen by May 31 with deaths sinking to zero by June 23.

With a population of 21.5 million, Florida is currently the eighth most COVID-18 infected state in the country. As of early morning Wednesday, Florida had 21,628 cases and 571 deaths, according to the Florida Department of Health. It's conducted more than 205,000 tests thus far. More than 7,700 of these cases are in Dade County while 3,000 are in Broward County, which is part of the Miami metropolitan area.

“Working with the White House, they’ve earmarked us a million (masks), we have 800,000 of that shipment in hand,” said DeSantis on Tuesday during his daily press conference. “When this all started, we had had millions of these masks ordered. We would be told they would be delivered on Friday then you’d go and they disappear. That’s been a real problem how the secondary markets work, but I’m glad we were able to work this out with the White House.”

He also gave an update about a newly formed task force from the Florida National Guard aggressively testing employees and patients at nursing homes and assisted living facilities. The 10 teams supplement 30 paramedics already been conducting these tests.

DeSantis declared a State of Emergency for in Florida on March 9. He has since expanded this order, prohibiting all visits to nursing homes, assisted living facilities, adult family-care homes, long-term care facilities and adult group homes for the next 30 days. He issued a stay-at-home order for the entire state starting on April 2.