Coronavirus

This year's Atlantic Hurricane season is already extremely busy, and emergency officials and researchers both are watching how evacuations are being affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jennifer Collins, a professor in the University of South Florida School of Geosciences, has received a National Science Foundation Rapid Response grant to study people's evacuation behaviors during the pandemic.

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ order lifting coronavirus restrictions on businesses provides them with more freedom to operate at full capacity. But mask orders are still in place and some businesses will continue to balance fully opening with the need to protect employees and customers.

Those who serve people with health conditions that make COVID-19 more deadly know that to keep their businesses, they will have to gain trust.

At a SuperCuts in Oldsmar, store manager Marissa Segallos says a monthly visit to the salon is the only outing for some of her clients.

Florida State University has canceled Spring Break for its students. In a letter, FSU says the change is an effort to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

University students won’t have time to hit the beach this Spring after FSU changed its Spring 2021 calendar. FSU is going remote for the first three days of the semester.

The school's letter mentions that cutting out spring break will reduce the potential for people to return to Tallahassee with the virus after traveling. As a result of the changes, the semester will end on April 23.

The Buccaneers will allow season pass members with continuous membership since 1998 or earlier, as well as some family and staff members into Sunday's game against the Los Angeles Chargers. Team officials estimate that under 10,000 people will be in attendance.

They'll increase seating to about 25% capacity — around 16,000 people — for the Green Bay Packers game on Oct. 18.

Leon County's mask mandate will stay in place for the time being. The county won't have much recourse if people ignore the rule. An executive order signed by Governor Ron DeSantis last week blocks local governments from collecting fines associated with mask ordinances. But county officials say that might not be as significant a change as some would think.

Even before the governor's order, Leon County Administrator Vince Long says people weren't paying fines for failing to wear a mask because the police weren't handing the fines out.

Fighting a single life-threatening illness is bad enough. But Guy Nichols recently battled two at once.

Nichols, a Kentucky native, moved to North Florida years ago, and now calls Panama City home. He said life was pretty good until several months ago.

"I was going to the VA clinic. My PA was really, really high on my blood count. They said, 'Let's send you to a specialist,' so they sent me to Dr. Baldwin, a urologist. And he said, 'We're going to run some tests, but you got cancer. We just have to figure out where it's at.'"

Two fraternities at Florida Gulf Coast University have been suspended for the rest of the semester, the university has reported. Phi Delta Theta and Sigma Chi were found responsible for holding an off-campus event that was not compliant with the university’s COVID-19 guidelines.

Sorority Delta Delta Delta has been placed on an interim suspension and is going through the school’s conduct process, also for allegations of holding an non-compliant event.

The Florida Department of Education (DOE) is distributing $2 million in CARES Act funding to increase K-12 students' access to virtual counseling and online psychiatry.

DEO Chancellor Eric Hall says leaders want to make sure there’s no gap in mental health services with more students enrolled in distance learning during the pandemic.

“It helps to give them access to that same level of support and engagement with these professionals using these online platforms, so that there’s no breakdown in service.”

TALLAHASSEE --- Gov. Ron DeSantis thinks students who attend Florida’s 12 state universities should be able to socialize without worrying about getting thrown out of school.

To that end, DeSantis said Thursday he’s willing to consider a college students’ “bill of rights” that would preclude state universities from taking actions against students who are enjoying themselves.

The governor’s office didn’t immediately respond to questions about when he might issue the “bill of rights” or whether it would be done through an executive order.

Schools across the state are back in session with some students in brick and mortar classrooms and others attending online.

But when it comes to music education, federal and state policy makers don't have much to say.

So these teachers are turning to organizations like the National Association for Music Education for guidance on how to safely move forward with extracurriculars that could contribute to spreading the coronavirus.

This week, Governor Ron DeSantis suggested he’d like to see a special session for the Florida legislature to consider protecting small businesses from lawsuits related to COVID-19.

Bill Herrle is state director of the National Federation of Independent Businesses. He welcomes the idea of lawmakers visiting the issue sooner rather than later, saying businesses “urgently need reform.”

Visitors will have to wait a bit longer to see the museum's works by Monet, Morisot, Rodin, O’Keeffe and many others, as well as ancient Greek and Roman, Asian, African, and Native American art.

The galleries of the museum's permanent collection are in the final stages of renovation and are expected to open in October, but two special exhibitions are on view now.

And, as with all indoor spaces in the region, the cultural institution is asking visitors to adhere to safety guidelines.

Florida A&M University’s Developmental Research School is sending students home for two weeks after several positive cases of COVID-19 on its campus.

The university says one teacher and one non-teaching staffer tested positive for the virus, along with two students. More than half a dozen teachers are being asked to quarantine and volleyball and football games set for this week have been postponed.

The school is also suspending in-person classes for two weeks.

Florida State University’s head football coach, Mike Norvell, has tested positive for the coronavirus.

Norvell announced his test results in a press release Saturday. He says the results stem from a test he took Friday, after receiving two negative results from tests he had taken earlier in the week.

Thrasher sent a statement via email to students today. In it, he thanks those who have been wearing face coverings and practicing social distancing. But he also says students who ignore COVID-19 safety guidelines are putting everyone at risk.

"The choices you make don’t just impact you. They affect your friends, families, professors, FSU staff, and the Tallahassee community at large, as well as our ability to hold in-person classes and future events and provide campus services," Thrasher says.

Florida State University has investigated some 45 students for violating the school's COVID-19 safety rules. The university has come under scrutiny for the behavior of some students who've flouted safety protocols.

After many establishments were closed for months amid the coronavirus pandemic, Florida’s top business regulator believes bar and craft-brewery owners will do a better job this time of self-enforcing state safety restrictions.

But Department of Business and Professional Regulation Secretary Halsey Beshears said Wednesday his agency won’t go easy on bars and breweries that violate rules such as indoor occupancy limits.

Researchers in several University of South Florida departments - including medicine, nursing and business - are recruiting volunteers from Tampa General Hospital's COVID-19 clinic for a new wearable devices study to predict when symptoms will worsen.

Health News Florida's Daylina Miller spoke with the principal investigator, Matthew Mullarkey, about the study, which is working to determine why some people get so sick from COVID-19 while others don't.

Daylina Miller: Can you tell us a little about about this study?