Record COVID spike forces cancellation of January meeting

A stunning statewide spike of coronavirus infection in Florida has forced cancellation of the official monthly AMO membership meeting at AMO headquarters on Wednesday, January 12.

This decision was reached through policy consensus within the AMO Executive Board, and it was driven by official data reported by Florida to the federal Centers for Disease Control. The data showed 85,707 new COVID-19 cases statewide and 5,757 men, women and children hospitalized - a 110-percent increase in one week - during the New Year's Day holiday weekend.

Florida surpassed its single-day coronavirus case record on December 31, when it reached 75,000 cases.

On January 5, the state reported an additional 51,644 coronavirus cases and an additional 7,000 hospitalizations, and four potential cases were identified among AMO personnel at headquarters, with each individual tested and working remotely while awaiting diagnostic results.

The rate of new infection in Broward County - home of AMO headquarters in Dania Beach - soared to 40 percent. In both Palm Beach County to the North and Miami-Dade County to the South, this rate was 34 percent. Public health authorities say COVID-19 contagion is manageable when the positivity rate is 5 percent or below.

Meanwhile, at the AMO Safety & Education Plan's STAR Center across Federal Highway from AMO headquarters, precautionary measures to ensure the health and safety of AMO members on campus for training remain in place.

These measures have been in effect since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged in mid-March 2020, but they have been modified as conditions allowed.

As of the New Year, the galley had reopened, with social distance requirements in the dining room and optional outdoor seating for meals. The swimming pool and the gymnasium remained open, and mask mandates, temperature screening and health history, travel and contact questionnaires remained among the campus protocols.

AMO Plans Executive Director Steve Nickerson this week reported 18 positive coronavirus cases among AMO Plans staff. These cases were identified through employee testing and reports of family members or friends having tested positive for COVID.

In these cases, testing, contact tracing and quarantine were applied, and the individual employees will be tested again after each five days of isolation.

STAR Center had planned to resume customary, pre-pandemic operation early this year.

We in AMO and AMO Plans are as war weary of the COVID-19 national health emergency and its unprecedented, unpredictable conditions as everyone else is at sea and ashore in the United States. Having canceled every regularly scheduled monthly membership meeting from April 2020, we were able to resume live, on-site sessions in November 2021 and December 2021. Now we're restricted again.

But despite the frustration and aggravation, two truths stand: to their lasting credit as licensed seagoing professionals, AMO members working in deep-sea, Great Lakes and inland waters markets have endured personal and professional COVID-19 consequences and complications with courage, grace and patience; and this AMO administration's priority remains safeguarding the health of our seagoing constituents, their families and their shipmates.

We will update the AMO membership as developments permit, and we welcome your questions, comments, complaints and personal perspective.

Paul Doell
National President
January 5, 2022