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Your Saturday Update: Florida Breaks Another Record, Miami Locks Beaches Down For July 4, Rent, Mortgage Help

Spc. Joshua Meeker, from the 3rd Battalion, 265th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, collects samples at the Orange County Convention Center Testing site. The drive through testing site is ramping up capacity this week. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Spencer Rhodes)
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Florida sees another rise in COVID-19 cases after huge spike, Miami beaches to close

Abe Aboraya, WMFE and AP

The state of Florida has set another record in daily confirmed coronavirus cases.

Florida health officials said Saturday that more than 9,500 new COVID-19 cases have been confirmed, surpassing the previous day's total. The Department of Health said 24 more Floridians had died with COVID-19, raising the death toll to 3,390.

Orange County recorded 994 new cases, just shy of the 1,033 cases recorded yesterday. The Orange County Convention Center had to stop cars from lining up in the early afternoon.

People started lining up for tests at 12:30 a.m.

Florida banned alcohol consumption at its bars Friday in response to the new numbers. State officials have attributed much of the new outbreak to young adults flocking to bars after they reopened.

On Friday night, Miami-Dade County's mayor announced he would sign an executive order closing beaches in the county over the Fourth of July weekend.

Florida gets $250M in CARES Act funding to help with housing

Abe Aboraya, WMFE, and Associated Press

Governor Ron DeSantis announced that the state has gotten more than $250 million in federal funding to help Floridians with housing.

“Many families across our state have been negatively impacted by COVID-19 through no fault of their own,” said Governor DeSantis. “This initiative strives to provide financial assistance through multiple affordable housing programs to ensure these Floridians receive the support they need during this difficult time.”

The state said it will spend $120 million for rental assistance for Floridians living in Affordable Housing. Another $120 million would be given to counties based on their unemployment rate, and would be used for "rent and mortgage assistance."

"These funds would be used for rental and homeowner assistance programs such as new construction, rehabilitation, mortgage buydowns, down payment and closing cost assistance, emergency repairs and homeownership counseling for individuals impacted by COVID-19."

Florida’s economy is taking a huge hit because of the coronavirus, according to a revenue report released by the state Senate president. Republican Senate President Bill Galvano sent a memo to senators Friday saying the state’s revenue in the month of April was down about $780 million from what was originally predicted.

That includes sales taxes that were about $695 million below predictions. The Legislature approved a $93 billion budget in March. DeSantis has until Tuesday to sign the budget for the fiscal year that begins Wednesday, and it’s expected he’s going to heavily use his power to veto individual items in the spending plan.