COVID hits AMO, forces meeting cancellation

September 2 reports of a confirmed COVID-19 outbreak on a deep-sea ship under AMO contract off the coast of Louisiana and a persistent positive case at AMO headquarters were among the factors that forced an AMO Executive Board consensus decision to cancel the monthly membership meeting at headquarters in Dania Beach on Tuesday, September 7.

The fierce Hurricane Ida delayed emergency response to the ship in the Gulf of Mexico as the storm hit the Louisiana coast as a Category 4 hurricane packing 150 mile-per-hour winds, blinding rain and major floods. AMO officials are keeping the names of the ship and potential victims of the COVID-19 delta variant confidential until all information is verified and deemed to be accurate.

In the case at headquarters, the vaccinated AMO employee remains asymptomatic but isolated and working remotely pending additional testing for specific complications tied to the variant.

Florida no longer provides daily data as public information, but it provides weekly reports and statistical averages to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. AMO officials and staff check the CDC's Florida data daily.

The latest numbers from the state indicate 19,857 new cases and 10 new coronavirus fatalities statewide in the seven days preceding September 3 - down from an average of 23,000 cases per day in August. The most recent rate of new infections statewide by county on August 31 averaged between 20 percent and 24 percent.

The pandemic is said to be under control when this "positivity rate" is five percent or lower. In Broward County, which includes Dania Beach, this rate on August 31 was 16.1 percent.

Florida today ranks fourth in the nation for average daily COVID contagion and first for average COVID deaths - 6,722 since July 1, a toll exceeding the body count at its worst since January 2021 and February 2021.

With the three-day Labor Day holiday weekend approaching, public health officials fear a post-weekend COVID-19 spike similar to what developed in the immediate aftermath of the long July 4, 2021 weekend.

Under these relentless conditions, the AMO Executive Board views its difficult decision to cancel the September 7 membership meeting as both prudent and precautionary. Our priority is to protect the health and safety of all AMO member and their families.

In a June 30 decision in a case that focused in part on the cancellation of AMO membership meetings since the pandemic was declared a national health emergency in March 2020, Federal Court in the Southern District of Florida upheld this administration's decisions and the manner in which each cancellation was announced as appropriate and thorough in the interests of health and safety.

Paul Doell
September 3, 2021