Coronavirus: Florida prepares for surge in cases with makeshift hospitals

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The Miami Beach Convention Center will be converted to a 450-bed hospital to meet what could be a critical health care shortage if Florida experiences a sudden surge in coronavirus cases, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday.

The iconic facility, which has hosted the South Florida Auto Show, Art Basel, Super Bowl events and even the 1964 Muhammad Ali-Sonny Liston heavyweight championship fight, will be set to house patients by April 20, DeSantis said.

“We need to be ready, and that’s what this will do,” DeSantis said, adding that the state currently has adequate hospital capacity and enough beds for what is forecast to be the peak demand on the hospital system from the coronavirus crisis.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will set up the temporary hospital in Miami Beach. The corps has established field hospitals elsewhere to treat coronavirus patients, notably at New York City’s Javits Center. DeSantis said the corps will also add 200 beds at Miami’s former Pan American Hospital to supplement a 250-bed field hospital already in place at the city’s Tamiami Park.

It wasn’t clear whether the alternate sites would be used for patients infected with the coronavirus or for patients treated for other medical conditions. But Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber noted the extraordinary times and his city’s quick adaption to social distancing rules.

“If there’s a city in America not built for social distancing, you are in it,” Gelber said of Miami Beach, usually an oceanfront playground. “We want people to come here to dance at their weddings, to embrace on their honeymoons, to visit our beaches, our promenades … but things are different right now.

“Just as we’re great at all that, we have to be great at this.”

Florida deaths related to coronavirus topped the 300 mark midday Wednesday while the number of cases climbed to 15,456, with nearly 2,000 in hospitals, according to the state’s Department of Health.

The crowded South Florida counties of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach accounted for 8,918 cases, or 57 percent of the state’s total. Only two of Florida’s 67 counties, sparsely populated Liberty and Lafayette counties report no coronavirus cases, according to state health officials.

DOH reported 309 people have died in its Wednesday morning count, up 13 from the evening before.

DeSantis said that hospital capacity was not yet endangered in Florida. Forty-three percent of hospital beds in Miami-Dade were still available, 46% in Broward and 49% in Palm Beach County, the governor said.

Separately, Floridians are still struggling to file unemployment compensation applications using the Department of Economic Opportunity’s glitch-ridden CONNECT system. Others sought out newly introduced paper applications.

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez said the county has reopened 26 libraries to assist jobless people seeking paper applications, a change DeSantis allowed only last week after thousands were unable to file using the CONNECT system.

More than 500,000 Floridians have managed to submit applications and are still awaiting benefits, capped at $275-per-week, among the lowest levels in the nation.

Democrats in the Florida House and Senate on Wednesday again called on DeSantis to hold off on issuing a $543.2 million corporate tax refund scheduled to be sent to Florida’s biggest companies by May 1.

The massive refund will not help smaller businesses, with virtually all shielded from the state’s 5.5 percent tax on the income businesses earn in Florida.

But DeSantis, Senate President Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, and House Speaker Jose Oliva, R-Miami, say it’s important that the state’s biggest companies get the refund they expect – even as uncertainty dominates the lives of Floridians and most businesses because of the coronavirus.

Democrats said Wednesday that the refund should be put on hold. Rep. Javier Fernandez, D-Coral Gables, said the paralyzed state economy is likely to reduce anticipated state revenue by at least $1 billion – threatening a wide range of needed state services.

Lawmakers also said the money could be directed toward boosting unemployment payments for Floridians. The more than half-a-billion dollars also could be used to help expand the state’s $50 million Small Business Emergency Bridge Loan program, which they said has already been awash in applications.

“Let’s just pump the brakes,” said Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez, D-Miami. “In this current climate, it makes no sense to send that money out the door.”

The corporate tax refund stems from the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. The law gave companies major federal tax savings, but also increased for some their state tax liabilities. The Florida Legislature subsequently approved a measure requiring the state to refund corporate income tax collections above a certain level.

This story originally published to theledger.com, and was shared to other Florida newspapers in the USA TODAY Network - Florida.