OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. – As Floridians continue to struggle at the mercy of the coronavirus pandemic, Osceola County leaders are planning ways to assist residents amid a boom in demand at food pantries and COVID-19 testing sites.
In a news conference Friday, county leaders announced they had established a back-to-work committee that met for the first time the same day.
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“We don’t plan to reinvent the wheel,” Janer said, adding that the committee will work with Orange County to streamline reopening efforts.
Osceola County Chairwoman Viviana Janer said the committee will function in a “think-tank” type capacity, and will follow all the guidelines set by both Gov. Ron DeSantis and President Donald Trump in determining how to safely and effectively reopen the county’s economy.
“After a major outreach effort we saw a major update to our business damage report,” Janer said. “513 self-reporting businesses declared $39.2 million in economic losses. That is a leap of $1 million in losses in one day.”
The county has also seen a large increase in the number of residents relying on assistance for food and housing as the pandemic progresses.
“Thousands more are now touched with the need for food assistance, some pantries are seeing a 1,000% increase in people needing help,” Janer said. “The county is also looking at providing some gap funding for food pantries.”
Leaders said Osceola County is set to receive $940,000 in federal funds that will be used to benefit citizens, especially those that have lost jobs due to the pandemic, and will allocate some of those funds for housing assistance.
County leaders will reconvene on May 4 to further determine how the remainder of those funds will be spent.
Kissimmee Mayor Jose Alvarez said the city’s Department of Economic Development is working to help small business owners transition to the road to recovery, as well as a “significant fee waiver” to assist both businesses and their customers.
“We are working to finalize a multi-million dollar financial assistance fund for small businesses, including about $400,000 in federal funds for direct assistance, and $157,000 in Federal funds for Kissimmee regional airport [that] will help pay for operational expenses and make up for some lost revenue,” Alvarez said.
The mayor also announced the city of Kissimmee will be receiving $40,000 to help people in need pay for medical services like paramedics and emergency medical services transportation.
Advent Health’s COVID-19 drive-up testing site, which opened Thursday at Heritage Park, administered 385 tests in a single day, but was closed Friday due to inclimate weather, officials said.