No spike in Lee County COVID-19 cases since Labor Day

It’s been 10 days since Labor Day and Florida’s coronavirus numbers haven’t spiked as many officials feared.

While we’ve seen a small increase day to day, we haven’t seen a day with more than 5,000 new cases in weeks. And the seven-day rolling average of new cases is 2,800.

Some aren’t ready to stop taking precautions but their optimism is growing with the downward trends.

Susan Sprehn has spent decades in Southwest Florida, and she wouldn’t trade her time here for anything else. “I love Fort Myers.”

That is until COVID-19 forced her and everyone else to keep to themselves and stay inside for long stretches at a time.

“I walk down the back street off of the street to avoid very many people,” Sprehn said. “So currently my husband and I are not going out to restaurants.”

But on Labor Day weekend, Sprehn took a chance of sorts. There were fewer cases of the coronavirus and more people were wearing masks.

“I was on Sanibel for Labor Day weekend,” Sprehn said. “They have a mask pretty much everywhere rule, and I think that’s important.”

A Lee Health spokesperson said the numbers for the coronavirus have been steady since Labor Day — less than a hundred patients per day since the holiday.

As for total cases, the Department of Health reported 116 new cases in Lee County on Thursday.

Kevin Munley hopes it’s a sign people are ready to get out and about again.

“I like it, it’s good for business,” Munley said. “Downtown’s been a pretty much a ghost town for months now, so, slowly, it’s been an uptick of people coming down.”

But Sprehn said now’s not the time to relax. There can always be a spike, so she hopes we remember one thing.

“It’s not going away anytime soon,” Sprehn said. “Mask up because that’s the best you can do.”

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