PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. —
A site designed for mass testing for COVID-19 is coming to Palm Beach County.
Governor Ron DeSantis announced Friday he was sending the National Guard to the county to set up the site.
“I think it’s important to expand the testing there so we can get a better sense of what’s going on,” DeSantis said.
“I’m very pleased,” said Palm Beach County Mayor Dave Kerner. “It’s been a long road working with the Governor’s office. They’ve been very supportive.”
According to the Florida Department of Health, Palm Beach currently has the third most cases of COVID-19 in the state.
Dade County has the most: 869 as of Friday night.
Broward County has 631.
In comparison, Palm Beach’s 241 cases seems low.
The Governor believes that number could be deceiving.
“If you look at Palm Beach’s numbers, they have not had nearly the amount of testing that Dade and Broward have had,” he said.
“Per capita, we are very low when you look around the state,” Kerner said, referring to the number of tests per resident in the county.
So far, Broward and Dade counties have each tested about 6000 people.
Palm Beach has tested less than a third of that, 1650 people.
“I think it’s important to expand the testing there so we can get a better sense of what’s going on,” DeSantis said.
“Until we get proper testing and consistent testing, I have fears that we’re not going to have a real picture of the spread of this virus,” Kerner said.
The exact location of the testing site has not yet been finalized, though Kerner said it will probably be at the Ballpark of the Palm Beaches.
He said the goal is to have the site up and running by Monday, with additional sites to follow in the coming weeks.
“Until we have that proper testing done, it’s difficult for us to wrap our heads around the scale of this pandemic,” Kerner said. “And I suspect it’s much larger than people think.”
Source:
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