It’s Tuesday, April 7th – and NBC 6 has the top stories you need to know for the day.
No. 1 - The Pentagon has awarded a contract for a field hospital at the Miami Beach Convention Center, NBC 6 learned Monday.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers looked at using the convention center as a medical treatment facility to assist in the coronavirus response. The estimated date of completion is April 27 and comes after a new executive order, which went into effect at 12 a.m. on Tuesday, requires all employees and customers at specific essential businesses to wear some sort of covering while inside each location.
No. 2 - The coronavirus death toll in Florida reached more than 250 people as total cases topped 13,600, according to statistics released by the state Department of Health on Monday.
Confirmed cases in Florida reached 13,629 Monday, more than 1,200 more than were reported Sunday evening. The COVID-19-related death toll reached 254, with more than 1,700 people hospitalized statewide. As of Monday Palm Beach County has had 51 deaths, followed by Broward County with 47 and Miami-Dade with 41. Monroe County has had 2 deaths.
No. 3 - Governor Ron DeSantis announced the implementation of changes to help processing applications for reemployment assistance during a roundtable discussion Monday.
He said the computer system's capacity has been increased to handle 120,000 simultaneous connections, about double the peak usage in recent weeks, and by Tuesday 750 additional state employees will be trained to handle and process phone calls. Applications can be downloaded at Floridajobs.org or picked up at local career source locations and four locations in the city of Hialeah.
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No. 4 - Floridians trust the career bureaucrats working on the coronavirus pandemic more than any politician, according to a massive online poll out of the University of North Florida.
Researchers with the University’s Public Opinion Research Lab asked nearly 3,200 people over the last five days about the current situation. President Donald Trump has a 45% approval rating according to the poll. Governor Ron DeSantis has a 51% approval rating. Very few - single digits, according to the poll, believe their federal, state and local governments went too far. Their concerns about public health outweighed their concerns about the economy.
No. 5 - A couple that lives along Florida’s Treasure Coast half the year says they were harassed by a woman during an incident amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis - an incident they say took place because of a New York license plate on their car.
Sandra and Marshall Aykroyd said they were stopped in traffic near their Fort Pierce part-time home when an elderly woman approached them and told them to get out of the area, allegedly saying “we don’t want your virus.” Sandra said she got out of her car and confronted the woman, who repeated her comments when the Aykroyds tried to tell her they lived in the area. The couple took down the woman’s license plate number and reported the incident to the Fort Pierce Police Department.
No. 6 - Weatherwise, an isolated shower sticks around Tuesday in South Florida before the hot weather makes its return for the rest of the work week. Keep your NBC 6 app handy for push alerts on any severe weather as well as First Alert Doppler 6000.
