FORT MYERS, Fla. — Lee County Commissioner Brian Hamman posted on his Facebook page that Florida's peak for the number of Coronavirus cases has passed.
According to the latest run of the IHME model that was revealed yesterday, shows the state's peaks in deaths passed 16 days ago, and the death toll has dropped from 7,000-1,300.
Commissioner Hamman says this is great news.
“I think it’s important to note while this model has changed 4 times, the run that was done yesterday, was done after 200,000 tests have been performed in the state of Florida. So it’s gotten more data now than it did a month ago, when we were using the model to make decisions off of” said Commissioner Hamman.
The decision to fully reopen, will take some more vetting.
“We need to see a consistent downward trend especially in Lee County before we start taking these steps. However, now is a good time to start planning because, we are not just going to re-open overnight, it’s something we need to plan for and something we need to phase in”, said Commissioner Hamman.
A three phase guideline plan was released this week by the Trump Administration for governors to reopen. Commissioner Hamman says if things continue on this path, we could start to see phase one.
“We’d start to see people phase in or ease in going back into going to work. It would probably be not a full opening of anything but an eased opening of things”, said Commissioner Hamman.
Like restaurants at half capacity, but for beaches, not just yet.
“I think we want to see the data and the trending move in the right direction before we take the move on the beaches”, said Commissioner Hamman.
Right now Broward, Palm Beach, and Miami - Dade counties make up 60 % of the cases across the state. Hamman says Lee, Collier and Charlotte counties will be making careful decisions that are best for our communities.
“So, you know we need to look at the rest of the state and make good decisions based on data and make sure it’s not a knee jerked reaction but a slow phased in approach” said Commissioner Hamman.