Kate Tiedemann and Ellen Cotton, longtime supporters of University of South Florida, have given USF $50,000 to provide emergency financial support to students on the USF St. Petersburg campus facing hardships due to the coronavirus epidemic. The gift, made in response to the USF United Support Fund effort, will be administered through the Stay AFLOAT fund, which was created by the USF Foundation to help students with a short-term need that may prevent them from continuing their education without assistance, a news release said. Stay AFLOAT scholarships are open to full or part-time students at all academic levels and all majors on the St. Petersburg campus. Those interested in supporting the fund can make a monetary gift through the USF Foundation’s website. Students can apply for funds through the Office of Financial Aid. Tiedemann, a self-made entrepreneur, is the largest donor in USF St. Petersburg’s history; together, Tiedemann and Cotton, her spouse and a former small business owner, have contributed more than $15 million to the university.
The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity now is providing daily updates on the reemployment assistance program in response to Covid-19. The program came under sharp criticism as its system was overwhelmed with claims initially. The state today rolled out a new dashboard that will be updated daily to reflect the total number of unemployment claims submitted, verified, processed, and paid. Between March 15 and April 19, there were 1.53 million total claims submitted, of which 652,191 were confirmed unique claims. About 99.6 percent of those unique claims were verified, and just under 25 percent of those — 162,039 claims — have been processed. Almost $60 million has been paid to 40,193 claimants. The State Reemployment Assistance Claims Dashboard is available here.
Robert "Bob" Reich, former executive vice president and chief financial officer at Tampa technology company Syniverse Holdings, has been named chief financial officer at Catalina. Reich will report directly to Wayne Powers, CEO of Catalina, a St. Petersburg-based technology firm that collects and analyzes shopping data. Reich has extensive experience in strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, investor relations and operational accounting, Powers said in a news release. Power said Reich successfully developed and led diverse teams to achieve corporate strategies, and that will be especially valuable to Catalina as the company continues to invest in innovation. "Our aggressive investments over the last 15 months have led to new data-driven products and actionable insights that are helping our retail and [consumer packaged goods] partners better understand and engage shoppers on a massive scale. Bob will be key to driving further growth," Powers said.
Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Saturday that the task force concerned with guiding the rebound of the Florida economy would be announced Monday, and that the group would meet that same day by phone. DeSantis gave a brief preview of the members, who he said would come from many sectors. He named Tampa Bay legislators Rep. Chris Sprowls and Sen. Wilton Simpson specifically and mentioned South Florida mayors would be included in the task force as well.
Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Saturday afternoon that Florida schools would continue online distance learning through the end of the 2019-2020 school year. While DeSantis acknowledged that distance learning is not the ideal situation, he explained that given the momentum of online learning in the state and when reopening would occur in the school year, the best decision going forward was to stay online. DeSantis said consultation with parents and stakeholders in the education system pushed his decision forward and said that Florida has been a leader in distance learning.
Restaurant customers in the United States are more optimistic about the industry's recovery from the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic than are customers in other parts of the world. That's a key finding in a survey by Revenue Management Solutions, a restaurant data analytics and consulting company in Tampa. RMS polled about 1,800 potential restaurant customers in five countries (United States, Singapore, South Korea, United Kingdom and Taiwan) hit hard by the pandemic. Over half of the respondents in the U.S. — 54 percent — believe the industry will recover within one to six months, with similar findings in South Korea and Taiwan. In the United Kingdom, 43 percent believe the industry will recover within six to 12 months; in Singapore, that number drops to 39 percent of respondents who believe recovery will happen in six to 12 months. Seventy-five percent of all respondents trust that the restaurant industry is able to safely produce and deliver meals, the survey found. Key factors customers will consider are employee hygiene, reputation and level of contact.
Layoffs in Florida's key leisure and hospitality sector spiked in March and were a key factor in the state's 4.3 percent March unemployment rate, a new report from Wells Fargo Securities said. The unemployment rate increased from 2.8 percent in February. Shutdowns and stay-at-home orders needed to contain the Covid-19 outbreak caused the leisure and hospitality sector to eliminate 38,600 jobs during March, as restaurants, bars and amusement parks closed and hotels reduced staff. More than 650,000 initial unemployment claims have been filed over the past four weeks in Florida, so unemployment is expect to rise again in April, Wells Fargo said. "While the number of job losses will be reminiscent of what was seen in the Great Recession, the composition will be substantially different. Housing is not overbuilt today in Florida or around country, although demand is certain to soften in the very near term. Construction payrolls, which plummeted 52 percent during the last recession, should fall only a fraction of that amount in the current downturn. Moreover, Florida has made considerable progress diversifying its economy into higher growth and less cyclical industries, including aerospace and technology," Wells Fargo said.
Florida has received more than $4.1 billion in federal relief under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act to help the state respond to and recover from Covid-19. It's half of Florida’s total allocation under the CARES Act, with an additional disbursement of funds later this month, a news release from Gov. Ron DeSantis said.
The number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the 33772 ZIP code in Seminole jumped from 24 to 36 today. That's the ZIP code that includes Freedom Square of Seminole, a retirement community that has seen an outbreak of the illness, according to media reports. [UPDATE: on April 18, there was another big increase and the 33772 ZIP code now has 42 reported cases, the most of any ZIP code in Pinellas County.) Another Pinellas County ZIP code with a significant increase was 33710, where Covid-19 cases jumped from 13 to 17. Two ZIP codes, 33763 and 33709, previously were listed as having 5 to 9 cases. Today, 33763 has 10 cases and 33709 has 11 cases. Check out your ZIP code in our interactive map here.
The Tampa Bay Rays have detailed a series of actions the organization has taken to help the community fight the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Rays Baseball Foundation awarded grants to 13 community partners to support programming focused on the crisis, including hunger relief, health and wellness, shelter and youth programming. The Rays Community Fund Grant program separately awarded 24 grants to non-profits that are providing various kinds of community support. The Rays Baseball Foundation and Rowdies Soccer Fund are donating up to $250,000 to Feeding Tampa Bay. Those two groups, along with the Tampa Bay Lightning and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, contributed $100,000 to the Relief Now, Rise Together Fund for residents and small businesses in Tampa. For more details on the groups funded and how to apply for assistance, click here.
The Hillsborough County Emergency Policy Group said it will recommend, but not require, face coverings to prevent the spread of Covid-19 coronavirus. Tampa Mayor Jane Castor had proposed requiring Hillsborough residents to wear masks when conducting essential business, but the idea never came to a vote Thursday afternoon, after six of the eight members on the emergency policy group said they could not support a mandate for face coverings. Hillsborough County Commissioner Kimberly Overman offered an alternative, recommending essential service employers ensure their workers are wearing face coverings if they cannot maintain a six-foot distance from the public and from their co-workers. That motion failed 2 to 6, with only Overman and Castor voting for it. Commissioner Les Miller, who chairs the emergency policy group, asked the county's communications teams to resend earlier communications, strongly urging wearing a face covering in public.
The Hillsborough County Emergency Policy Group voted unanimously to rescind a curfew it had put in place earlier this week to control the spread of Covid-19. Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister called the curfew redundant and confusing because all of Florida remains under a Stay at Home order. Several other members of the policy group said they acted too hastily in approving the curfew. County Commissioner Les Miller, who heads the Emergency Policy Group, said he had proposed the curfew because he wanted to save lives in the county. While Hillsborough County has not seen the level of cases that New York and other communities have experienced, "that does not mean it will not happen," Miller said, citing projections that show Covid-19 cases will not peak until late April or early May in Florida. After the debate, Miller joined other members of the group in voting to rescind the curfew.
