As Florida has worked to protect its oldest, most vulnerable residents from its surge in cases, the virus appears to have caught up with the Villages, a sprawling retirement community so big it has three ZIP codes, 12 golf courses and multiple libraries and movie theaters.
Since the beginning of July, hospital admissions of residents from the Villages have quadrupled at University of Florida Health The Villages, the hospital’s critical care doctors said. As of last week, the hospital admitted 29 Villages residents, all of them with the virus, said Dr. Anil Gogineni, a pulmonologist and critical care doctor there.
In Sumter County, where part of the Villages is located, there were 270 cases last week, up from 68 in the first week of June, according to the county’s health department.
Now many residents are confronting their new reality. “It’s seeping in, no matter what,” said Rob Hannon, 64. The golf course is still crowded, he said, as well as the hair salon where his wife, Michelle, 53, works. “The women are still coming in, but they’re a little more anxious,” Mr. Hannon said. “You can’t stop living. But you can stop being cavalier.”
In an email to residents last week, Jeffrey Lowenkron, the chief medical officer of the Villages, said cases were increasing and urged people to take “steps to reduce the risk of disease transmission.”
The virus poses special risks in Florida, where about a fifth of the population is 65 or older, who are especially vulnerable. While more than a third of the cases in the state, one of the worst hit in the nation, have been among people under 34, according to the Florida Department of Health, there have been signs that the age of those infected is shifting. Jackson Health System, Miami-Dade County’s public hospital, said last week that 18 percent of its virus patients were 80 or older. Two weeks before, that figure was 9 percent. Elsewhere in the United States:
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Minnesota, which on Monday reported 900 new cases, a single-day record, also reported its first virus-related death of a child, according to the state’s health department. The department said the child was 5 years old or younger, but did not list the exact age.
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Mayor Lori Lightfoot of Chicago is rolling back some of the city’s reopening rules to “help limit further community spread,” she said Monday. Starting Friday, bars will once again be banned from serving alcohol indoors; services like shaves and facials that require people to take off their masks will be banned; indoor fitness classes will be limited to 10 people; and property managers will be asked to limit guests to five per unit to prevent parties.
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The largest school district in Georgia, Gwinnett County Public Schools, said that classes will begin on Aug. 12 with online-only instruction.
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Alaska on Monday reported 137 new cases, a single-day record.
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Kansas announced on Monday…
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