City and county commissions discuss implementing another shutdown when students return

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

The Gainesville City Commission and Alachua County Commission met together on Wednesday to talk about the University of Florida’s plans for re-opening in the fall and what measures local governments should take in response. Dr. Charles Lane and Dr. David Nelson represented the university at the meeting.

The university’s plan is here. In response to questions from the commissioners, university officials said they have a capacity of 1000 tests per day and that they will issue two cloth masks to each student.

When asked what they will do about professors and classmates if a student tests positive, the officials said that they will do contact tracing, and anyone who has been within 6 feet of the infected person for more than 15 minutes would be considered a contact. However, they said that if both people are wearing masks, this would not be considered a contact. Since everyone is supposed to wear masks on campus, professors and classmates would generally not be considered contacts. 

However, the CDC’s definition of a contact uses the same guidelines for distance and time but says, “Note: This is irrespective of whether the person with COVID-19 or the contact was wearing a cloth face covering or whether the contact was wearing respiratory personal protective equipment (PPE).”

When asked about medical exemptions, Lane said students who claim medical exemptions from face masks would be encouraged to use a face shield instead of a mask.

Nelson was also asked about hospital capacity. He said the Shands system has plenty of capacity, including the ability to accept 200 more ICU patients in Gainesville. He said that he believed the decision to stop doing some elective procedures at North Florida Regional was made by the parent corporation as a system-wide decision.

Nelson said that hospital capacity numbers are difficult to interpret because the state data relies on the number of licensed beds registered at the state level and doesn’t account for surge capacity. He added that hospitals typically run at about 98% of their capacity, so the current availability of 6% is higher than usual.

The commissioners talked about how the university and the City can work together to improve compliance with face mask mandates, and they said that if a student gets a citation in the community (at a retail store, for example) for not wearing a face mask, the City would send that information to UF so the student can also be disciplined by the university.

“I’m very much hoping that bars stay closed for indoor service. I also think that one of the next most dangerous places are indoor restaurant service.”

In a discussion about entertainment opportunities for students, who will be asked to give up parties, bars, and other group activities, Mayor Lauren Poe said, “We have got to reimagine and, almost from scratch, create a new culture in Gainesville. Not just for our students, but for everybody, and in that, I think there’s a lot of exciting possibilities. I think we can engage our arts and entertainment community, challenge them to provide meaningful opportunities where students and non-students alike can enjoy themselves. 

“Some of it’s going to be virtual; some of it’s going to be safely physically distanced outdoors. I will be very clear: I’m very much hoping that bars stay closed for indoor service. I also think that one of the next most dangerous places are indoor restaurant service.”

City Commissioner Harvey Ward favored a stronger partnership between the City, the County, and UF: “When we started all this back in March, I assumed—and shame on me for assuming this—that the county health department meant, kind of, the county health department, and it was something that was responsible and responsive to local leadership. And I’ve learned differently, so I’ll proceed differently. We know that the county health department operates as part of the state bureaucracy, and that’s fine; they have a very different role than I think a lot of people understand them to.

“That being the case, it’s incumbent on leaders of Alachua County and the City of Gainesville, I think, to take this opportunity that we’re presented to re-think how we approach public health in our community and what role the County and the City have, and how we can best partner with one of the world’s great public health institutions, who happens to be right here in our community…

“So I’d like you to all be thinking about how we can partner together, all three institutions—City, County, and UF—specifically about public health, not only in pandemic situations, but also in regular, every day improvements of health for the people who live in this community. Again, I misunderstood the Department of Health’s role in our county… and shame on me, I won’t make that mistake again.”

Lane said that he had met this week with City Manager Lee Feldman and some bar and restaurant owners: “It really opened my eyes. These folks sat there and said, ‘Listen, we can’t survive in a 50% capacity. It’s that simple. We have to figure out other ways around this.’ And that resonated with me; it really did. We know the students want to do something other than just go to a museum. That’s a reality. So I think all of us have got to figure out a way to make it possible for these kids to be successful in this environment. Give them, as I said, the benefit of the doubt. If we can help them be successful, then I think they will be successful.”

City Commissioner Adrian Hayes-Santos, however, said, “We should be reducing our indoor dining and indoor recreation, for example, pool halls or bowling alleys… Are we at the point to start restricting indoor dining and things like that?”

“The infections are being driven by private events, by house parties, block parties, that sort of thing. And that tracing them back to places of employment and to restaurants, it isn’t happening right now.”

County Commission Chair Robert Hutchinson said they’d talked about it but hadn’t made that decision yet. “We keep asking the health director to tell us more what they’re discovering through contact tracing, and what he continually tell us is that, when he checks with the epidemiologists, the infections are being driven by private events, by house parties, block parties, that sort of thing. And that tracing them back to places of employment and to restaurants, it isn’t happening right now.

“And so, we would be quick to shut down a bowling alley or a pool hall if we thought that was a major vector, or a barbershop or whatever, but right now the indications are it’s primarily private activities that are causing the spread to be as rapid as it is. And those are a lot harder to regulate… We know it’s not always comfortable to be partying outside… in Florida in August, so I don’t know what the solution’s going to be.”

“We kind of quarantine the city for 3 or 4 weeks and say hey, we’re just going to shut down, and then we’d be able to kind of bring it back up again.”

Hayes-Santos said thousands of students would be coming into town in a few weeks “and a lot of them are coming from areas that do have very large community spread in south Florida. I’m wondering if [we did] kind of a pre-emptive shutdown during those first few weeks when school starts, almost kind of a way to quarantine the city for that period of time when those students do arrive… that we kind of quarantine the city for 3 or 4 weeks and say hey, we’re just going to shut down, and then we’d be able to kind of bring it back up again.”

City Commissioner David Arreola moved that the city commission direct their government to work with the University of Florida to recruit contact tracers and coordinate what he called a “one-Gainesville quarantine culture.”

The motion passed unanimously.