While Victoria struggles with a surge in COVID-19 cases numbering hundreds each day, the US state of Florida is battling a spike of a very different magnitude, with more than 400,000 cases.

While Victoria struggles with a surge in COVID-19 cases, the US state of Florida is battling a spike of a very different magnitude.
Key points:

  • More than 400,000 people in Florida have tested positive to COVID-19
  • Local and state political leaders have been accused of sending mixed messages
  • Australian cafe owner Nick Sharp says the numbers started to spike after the Spring Break vacation

After peaking at 15,000 cases in one day, it is still registering thousands of new cases each day, with more than 400,000 people having tested positive.
“There are more cases of COVID-19 here in Miami than in Australia,” ICU nurse Kevin Cho Tipton told 7.30.
“We have 65,000 people in Miami that have the virus.”
Miami’s population of 2.7 million people is just over half of greater Melbourne’s 5 million.
Australian Nick Sharp owns six cafes in the Miami area, and he is struggling.
“It’s tough, it’s really tough,” he told 7.30.
‘Crazy gatherings’
Nick Sharp has struggled to keep his six cafes in Miami operating.(ABC News)
Two things have led to the soaring number of cases spring break in March followed by a month-long shutdown and then the national 4th of July holiday.
Spring break has become a traditional time of letting off steam for college students, who head to the warmth of Miami to party in their tens of thousands.
Despite the coronavirus and warnings about social distancing, this year was no different from any other.
“There was a lot of stuff online, on the news crazy gatherings, big parties happening around town,” Mr Sharp said.
“You could see all of that behaviour creeping the wrong way and then a couple of weeks after that see the cases rising across all of Florida.”
He has tried his best to keep going through the crisis by turning his businesses into mini-supermarkets as well as food banks.
“We’ve been trying to follow all the guidelines, the rules, stay as safe as we can,” he said.
Mixed messages
US President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis have been accused of not doing enough to stop the spread of COVID-19.(Reuters: Tom Brenner)
Florida’s Governor, Ron DeSantis, is an ally of Donald Trump.
He has been criticised for his handling of the crisis, accused of rushing to reopen the economy while the number of infections soared.
But Mr Sharp said authorities at the local level have also failed either sending mixed messages or simply not communicating with each other at all.
He cites the example of the Miami Dade county mayor and the Miami city mayor.
“Miami Dade county mayor closed outdoor dining with 48 hours notice,” Mr Sharp said.
“The mayor of the city was on the news a day later saying he knew nothing about it he doesn’t think it’s right.
“It came out he hadn’t spoken to the county mayor for three weeks.
“It’s just mind-blowing.
“They’re not having a co-ordinated strategy, so on the reopen you have the kind of chaos you see here at the moment.”
Mr Trump had been planning to hold the Republican Convention in Florida next month after moving it from North Carolina because of fears there of it helping to spread COVID.
The Florida RNC meeting has now been cancelled.
“The fact that they’ve had to cancel the Republican National Convention and the activities in Jacksonville speak to how dreadful the situation is in Florida,” Miami Herald columnist Fabiola Santiago told 7.30.
“If President Trump and Governor Ron DeSantis had followed the science, if they had listened to the doctors and the public health experts, if the focus would have been on saving people’s lives and not political posturing, we wouldn’t be where we are right now.”
‘I’ve put two of my co-workers on ventilators’
Kevin Cho Tipton shows off the PPE he is required to use in the hospital where he works.(ABC News)
Kevin Cho Tipton is an ICU nurse at one of Florida’s largest public hospitals.
At the moment, he is in-and-out of personal protective equipment (PPE) up to 20 times a shift.
“The amount of equipment needed is increasing exponentially, it seems like, and so it’s difficult,” he said.
Despite the precautions, one of his colleagues, Araceli Buendia, has already died of COVID-19.
“She was one of the nurse leaders at at one of our public hospitals,” Mr Cho Tipton said.
“I’ve personally put at least two of my co-workers on ventilators.
“It’s been very difficult.”
For Aussie cafe owner Nick Sharp, it is a matter of survival.
“Depending on how long it goes on, you know, you don’t know what condition you’re going to be in at the end,” he said.
“But I think the main sort of objective at the moment is to just survive the best we can.”