Gov. Ron DeSantis said 225,755 workers filed initial unemployment claims in Florida this week as they lost their jobs because of the COVID-19 shutdown.
During a news conference April 10 in Lot J at TIAA Bank Field, DeSantis said those claims are being processed as the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity works to “beef up” its claims system and call center capacities.
The U.S. Department of Labor reported 169,885 claims were filed in Florida for the week that ended April 4, down from 228,484 the previous week.
Workers applying for unemployment benefits at the Department of Economic Opportunity website have reported crashes and an inability to file.
DeSantis said the state has increased the number of data servers to improve performance and built a parallel website for the increased demand.
“That site is able to take a much higher volume of people coming into the site,” DeSantis said of the new website.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Florida’s unemployment website fielded about 250 claims per day and it took two to three weeks for people to receive their benefits, DeSantis said. One month ago, the Department of Labor reported 5,103 jobless claims in Florida.
DeSantis said there also have been internal changes to speed up the claims process.
Nearly 12,000 claims have been filed by paper, DeSantis said. There also are designated application drop-off locations in FedEx stores throughout Florida.
More than 2,000 state employees are active or on standby to help process claims, DeSantis said.
In Jacksonville, the governor called the strain on Florida’s unemployment infrastructure “real crushing demand.”
“You’re seeing this throughout the country but the amount of unemployment claims nationwide in just a few-week period, I think it took us a year or certainly many months to reach this level of claims in the Great Recession,” DeSantis said. “So this is a shock that we’ve never seen before.”
Lot J testing
Florida National Guard members will begin staffing the COVID-19 testing site at Lot J at TIAA Bank Field on April 13 as federal funding and assistance ends.
Mayor Lenny Curry said in his April 9 news conference that DeSantis offered state funding and staff to keep the site open.
Alongside DeSantis on April 10, Curry said the Lot J site will increase testing capacity to 400 people per day with a three- to five-day wait for test results.
State control also means testing criteria will be loosened. The drive-thru site will accept people exposed to someone who tests positive for COVID-19, as well as people showing symptoms.
Curry said National Guard personnel will not take on a medical role at Lot J, but will relieve some Jacksonville Fire & Rescue Department personnel who have been staffing the site since federal officials opened it March 20.
The site will be closed Easter Sunday and will reopen 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday. It will operate seven days a week.
The numbers
Duval County had 609 confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of 1:13 p.m. April 10 with 11 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine online dashboard. Of those, 598 were active cases of the disease.
Statewide, Florida recorded 17,531 total cases as of 11 a.m. with 390 deaths.
During his daily news briefings this week, Curry said 5% to 6% of coronavirus tests in Duval County have been positive. That remains below Florida’s statewide weekly average of 11%.
DeSantis said about 15% to 20% of tests have returned positive in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, where about 60% of the state’s COVID-19 cases have been diagnosed.
Hospital capacity in Florida to handle sick patients also remains steady. DeSantis said in Jacksonville that 44% of Florida hospital beds are open and available while 40% of ICU beds are open.
In Duval County, the governor said 45% of total hospital beds and 48% of ICU beds are available.
“I want to remind Floridians who are very used to hurricanes and watching different spaghetti models taking different tracks and turns and we let our guard down. While the data is looking good, now is not the time to stop social distancing,” said Jared Moskowitz, Florida Division of Emergency Management director. “Now is not the time to stop listening and following that CDC guidance.”
CDC is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Che division expects to spend $2 billion in 16 months on coronavirus response, Moskowitz said. Jacksonville has received $20 million in state aid for its COVID-19 response, Curry said April 10.
Moskowitz said five state-run field hospitals with 250-bed capacities have been set up, including one at the Prime F. Osborn III Convention Center, and are ready if there is a surge in cases .
“Right now, we have the capacity, so that’s a good sign,” DeSantis said.