Manatee County must prep for hurricane season with new guidelines for COVID-19.
Due to concerns over the spread of the pandemic, the county emergency management office could not host its usual community meetings to help people prepare for hurricane season.
So staff and officials launched a series of virtual town hall meetings led by Steve Litschauer, county emergency management chief, and Jake Saur, county public safety director.
The series kicked off June 10 with Commissioner Steve Jonsson, county representative for District 3, which includes Anna Maria Island, Cortez and northwest Bradenton.
While just three cases of the virus were reported among island residents as of June 11 — two in Bradenton Beach and one in Holmes Beach — the island is a flood zone and a major storm could force an evacuation.
But social distancing can be challenging in a public shelter.
Litschauer encouraged people in evacuation zones not to rely on shelters and instead seek refuge with friends or family.
“A shelter now should be a refuge of last resort,” Litschauer said, adding shelter space would be decreased due to social distancing requirements.
Also, people in shelters would be required to wear masks.
“Combine that with a lot of unknown surroundings, it really makes it an uncomfortable place to be during a hurricane,” Saur said.
Jonsson asked if shelters would provide masks, to which Litschauer responded, “Yes,” and said the state and county have gathered mask supplies, as well as gloves and hand sanitizer.
Although the county’s rate of positive cases to negative ones was slightly lower than the state’s, 159 new cases were reported June 3-10.
There were 1,244 positive cases as of June 10, ranking Manatee No. 11 of 67 counties.
When asked by The Islander if shelters might lessen restrictions if COVID-19 cases decrease, Saur replied, “COVID-19 is not going away until there is a vaccine and a considerable vaccine campaign within the community. I would not foresee us relaxing restrictions this year at all regardless what the latest statistics are. It’s simply not possible with the cases we already have.”