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Florida’s summer surge of COVID-19 cases continued to abate on Thursday as 12,288 new cases were reported. The improvement led to Florida’s weekly trend for new cases to drop to the lowest level since July 28th. Florida’s COVID-19 hospitalizations continued to decline on Thursday as well as ending the day with 12,735 Floridians hospitalized with the virus.
In other news, U.S. District Judge Mark Walker blocked parts of Florida’s new “Anti-Riot” law citing the First Amendment. According to Walker the definition of what constitutes a riot is too broad. Walker cited these examples, "Is it enough to stand passively near violence? What if you continue protesting when violence erupts?" Governor DeSantis said the state would appeal, and similar to the school mask mandate decision in the Leon County Circuit Court expressed confidence the state will win on appeal.
Lastly, on Thursday the Army Corp of Engineers informed the South Florida Water Management District that they don’t anticipate any delays to the continuation of the Everglades Restoration Project despite lawsuits challenging existing projects by the sugar industry. The following two projects scheduled are a stormwater treatment area and the EAA Southern Reservoir for runoff water from Lake Okeechobee.