Despite the record-setting number of coronavirus cases in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis says Florida won’t be rolling back its reopening plan.

The Sunshine State has recorded a growing number of COVID-19 cases throughout June. But as the positivity rate of new cases rises together with daily testing, the Governor is pointing toward migrant farmers and inmates — both groups living in close quarters — as the driving sources of new cases.

That means no mask requirements and no rollbacks, which DeSantis said wouldn’t stop the number of cases in those isolated groups and would outweigh the benefit reopening has done for Floridians.

“We’re not shutting down. We’re going to go forward,” he said. Counties with high or an increasing number of cases are often linked to agriculture or correctional facilities, he said, where the younger demographics frequently don’t show symptoms. One watermelon farm he highlighted in Alachua County had a 90% positivity rate among 100 people tested.

With migrant farmers and incarcerated Floridians spending less time interacting with the broader public, he suggested those cases shouldn’t factor into a statewide lockdown.

“They go to work in a school bus, and they’re all just packed there like sardines, going across Palm Beach County,” DeSantis said. “Just all these opportunities to have transmission.”

In Tuesday’s daily coronavirus report, state health officials reported a record 2,783 newly confirmed cases of the virus, and total diagnoses throughout the pandemic have topped 80,000. But with testing reaching an average of 30,000 people per day, that’s triple the amount of testing conducted during the virus’ April peak, when about 1,300 tested positive. But with 2,783 out of 30,000 testing positive, the rate is certain;y alarming, as it was when 1,300 tested positive in April out of 10,000.

Who knew dolphins in the Indian River Lagoon are night owls? They like to roam after the sun goes down, sometimes swimming out of the lagoon and into the Atlantic Ocean or up rivers, creeks and canals.
We know it now thanks to a study by researchers from Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Fort Pierce, in collaboration with South Carolina-based Seven Degrees of Mapping and the Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute, who used satellite telemetry to track four dolphins in the lagoon at night.
Previous research had indicated the more than 1,000 bottlenose dolphins living in six distinct groups along the 156-mile lagoon tend to stay in the lagoon, and dolphins in the ocean tend not to enter the lagoon.
Maybe during the day, but not at night.
Results of the study, published in the journal Animal Biotelemetry, show the dolphins traced by the satellite regularly left the brackish waters of the lagoon to travel into the ocean.

​The belief now is that the dolphins travel more at night to hunt and because they have less chance of human interference.

The research should show water managers and government agencies that lagoon dolphins, which face threats from boat strikes, entanglements and environmental contamination, have a larger range than was previously thought. The researchers attached satellite tags on the dorsal fins of four male dolphins, three adults and one juvenile captured during an ongoing health assessment of the lagoon population.

Funding was provided from sales of the "Protect Wild Dolphins" and "Discover Florida’s Oceans" specialty license plates with support from SeaWorld and the Busch Gardens Conservation Fund.

At the direction of Governor Ron DeSantis, the Florida Highway Patrol is assisting the Florida Department of Transportation and the Florida Department of Health (DOH) with checkpoints for motorists entering Florida on I-10 and I-95.
The checkpoints were set up in late March as part of an effort to get travelers from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Louisiana to self-isolate upon arriving in Florida.
New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Louisiana were targeted because they were hotspots for the virus.
Motorists traveling from Alabama into Florida on Interstate 10 will no longer face being stopped for COVID-19 checks.
The Florida Department of Transportation announced Friday that a checkpoint east of the Florida-Alabama border is being deactivated as part of Gov. Ron DeSantis starting the second phase of a COVID-19 economic recovery plan.

Beginning June 3, 2020, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV) will begin reopening offices to serve the public by appointment only. For a limited time, driver license and motor vehicle services will be limited to only those customers who are unable to conduct their transactions through GoRenew.com. The department’s strategic approach to reopening its offices prioritizes the health and safety of Floridians and FLHSMV members, while continuing to increase services for customers.
To ensure the safety of customers and staff, FLHSMV offices will provide in-office services by appointment only, until further notice. Appointments can be made online here.
To allow FLHSMV staff to operate safely and protect the health and wellbeing of customers, all FLHSMV offices will adhere to strict social distancing policies that every customer must follow in order to be served. Customers with appointments should note the following:

• Only customers with appointments will be allowed in the office.
• Customers will be asked a series of screening questions and have their temperature taken before they enter the office, per CDC guidelines. Customers with a fever will not be permitted to enter.
• Members of the public must use a facial covering, when obtaining essential services, which will be removed only for circumstances where capturing a photo of the customer is necessary.

FLHSMV will continue to provide services online at GoRenew.com, by telephone and email.