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Monday's Daily Pulse
What you need to know about Florida today
Florida’s second COVID Christmas marred by 320% infection hike
The omicron variant is Florida’s unwelcome Christmas visitor, likely driving a 320 percent surge of COVID-19 cases in just one week. The state on Christmas Eve reported 125,201 cases from Dec. 17-23, a daily average of more than 17,800 over the seven-day period. That’s the highest infection rate since early September, when the delta wave was cresting. In just two weeks, Florida’s seven-day average has gone from 4,200 cases a week to 17,800, according to the data released Friday. [Source: Tampa Bay Times]
Desperate for workers, Florida restaurants send in more robots
As Florida braces for the omicron unknown this holiday season, more restaurants are booting up robots to gird themselves against another serious problem: a persistent labor squeeze that isn’t slowing down. A survey of 13,659 wage earners by the online job marketplace Joblist suggests that 58% of U.S. restaurant and hotel employees plan to quit after the New Year. About 6% of leisure and hospitality workers called it quits in October, according to new data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. [Source: Orlando Sentinel]
More private rocket companies are set to light up Space Coast with launches in 2022
While SpaceX and United Launch Alliance have been sending rockets up at an increased pace the past several years, the Space Coast is about to get much busier with more commercial rocket companies set to join the launch party. The first half of 2022 is slated to see two companies launch for the first time from Cape Canaveral from two older launch complexes while some massive new rockets are waiting on new engines in the hopes of lifting off before the end of the year. [Source: Post Bulletin]
Column: Beyond the pandemic — Long-term changes for supply chains in Florida
Many Floridians have been confronted with lingering product shortages across store shelves and online as the pandemic continues to stretch and disrupt global supply chains at a time when demand is soaring. These disruptions and resulting delays can be expected for the foreseeable future, but they also underscore the importance of future supply chain resiliency for Florida. [Source: Florida Times-Union]
2022 outlook: Fort Lauderdale a strong “magnet” for businesses, developers
It’s a good for a city to be called a “magnet,” so long as it’s attracting the right things. In the case of Fort Lauderdale, business leaders took heart last week after PwC, the national auditing and accounting firm, released an annual commercial real estate survey of 80 metro areas that for the first time ranks the city as a top “18-hour city.” It’s a loosely defined term that refers to smaller cities with amenities, public services, and job opportunities that are comparable to those in larger places such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. [Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel]
ALSO AROUND FLORIDA:
› Carnival Freedom hit with COVID-19 outbreak, third South Florida cruise ship disrupted by virus
A group of passengers and crew aboard a Carnival Freedom cruise that departed from Miami Saturday for the southern Caribbean has been infected by the coronavirus and so the ship was denied entry to Bonaire and Aruba, Carnival Cruise Line confirmed Thursday. It’s the third COVID-19 outbreak in less than a week affecting cruise ships operated by Carnival and Royal Caribbean that have departed Miami and Fort Lauderdale ports.
› Nerd alert: Comic Con to debut in St. Pete
St. Petersburg nerds, rejoice: The Sunshine City, at long last, is getting its own Comic Con. Organized by Dewey Caruthers, a local public relations and marketing professional, and his teenage daughters Blu and Scarlet, the geek gala takes place Jan. 8-9 at the Coliseum in downtown St. Pete. Tickets are $20 per person for one day or $30 per person for both days; a VIP ticket is available for $100.
› Orlando power plant in Brevard blights Space Coast’s economic rebound
After prolonged economic funk from recession and NASA’s retirement of shuttles, prospects for Florida’s Space Coast have brightened with the rise of the private rocket industry despite a relic of darker times looming over the region’s main street and treasured Indian River. An obsolete, unused, hulking power plant greets motorists on U.S. Highway 1 between Cocoa and Titusville with postapocalyptic imagery. It is owned by the city of Orlando.
› Miami virtual gaming developer stopped hiding his hometown, learned to love #Miamitech
Miami tech had a stellar year in 2021. It wasn’t always like this. For the co-founders of Miami-based virtual reality gaming studio AEXLAB, there had been an unofficial rule when meeting with the outside world: Don’t mention their hometown. CEO Jonathan Ovadia, a Miami Beach Senior High School and University of Miami graduate, said the decision to do so had nothing to do with what outsiders really thought about his roots, or the virtual reality company they started in 2017.
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