Fever-tracking map indicates potential coronavirus outbreak in Florida after spring breakers party on the beaches

Critics of local leaders say a 'major catastrophe is unfolding in Florida' while calling for a statewide lockdown

A real-time map tracking seasonal and “influenza-like illnesses” has observed an unusual clustering of sicknesses in Florida that may provide an “early indicator” of how quickly the coronavirus pandemic was spreading throughout the Sunshine State.

The map compiles live information from more than a million smart thermometers across the country, which connect to mobile applications and allow users to self-report the data. On Friday, the map showed atypical sickness levels in counties like Miami-Dade, where party-goers recently enjoyed spring break festivities before state officials clamped down on the crowded events.

An influx of reports indicating high levels of influenza-like symptoms in the region was seen as critics of local leadership warned that a “major catastrophe is unfolding Florida” while calling on the governor to announce a statewide lock-down.

The map was created by Kinsa, a smart thermometer maker “dedicated to providing the knowledge, guidance and tools to keep communities healthy”, according to its website, in collaboration with Benjamin Dalziel, a researcher and assistant professor at Oregon State University.

“We are not stating that this data represents Covid-19 activity,” the company said in a statement. “However, we would expect to pick up higher-than-anticipated levels of flu-like symptoms in our data in areas where the pandemic is affecting large numbers of people. Taken together with other data points, we believe this data may be a helpful early indicator of where and how quickly the virus is spreading.”

Kinsa said it hoped the map “serves as a guidepost for public health first-responders” as the global pandemic causes a surge in illnesses reported throughout the US, with more than 13,000 people having tested positive for cover-19 since the country announced its first official case on 20 January.

Nita Nehru, a spokesperson for Kinsa, said in an email to CNET: “If we see something unusual, such as an unexpectedly high level of illness, investigation needs to be done, and it needs to be done now so that we have the best shot at society's limited resources being put to their best use."

Events surrounding spring break in Florida stirred controversy throughout the week as videos circulated online showing crowds of people gathered at beaches and at the popular South Beach strip, with young people telling local news outlets they were not concerned about the pandemic and wanted to gather before bars and restaurants were forced to shutter their doors to the public.

Miami-Dade took over Broward on Thursday to become the county with the most confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Florida, according to the latest data, as the number of statewide cases rose to more than 430.

Topher Spiro, vice president for health policy and a senior fellow at the nonprofit Centre for American Progress, posted a link to the map on Twitter and tagged Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R—Fla), writing: “You need to look at this data.”

“Florida is showing severe atypical fevers throughout the state. FL must be locked down immediately,” he wrote in a follow-up tweet, adding: “In Florida, restaurants are still open. Many localities have closed beaches but there is no statewide closure or enforcement.”

In an interview with Fox News on Thursday night, the state’s governor said “the party’s over” for spring breakers as the coronavirus continued to spread.

“You’re not going to be able to congregate on any beach in the state. Many of the hot spots that people like to go to, whether it’s Miami beach, Fort Lauderdale, Clearwater Beach, are closed entirely for the time being,” he said.

Florida has closed all bars and nightclubs for a 30-day period. Mr DeSantis also said “every single beach” in the state would have to comply with guidelines from the US Centre for Disease Control limiting gatherings to no more than 10 people.

Senator Rick Scott (R—Fla) also told spring breakers to “get off the beaches” during an interview with CNN this week, saying: “What are you thinking about by being on the beach around all these people that might have coronavirus and you’re going to go home and potentially infect the people you love the most?”

“What are you thinking?” he said. “Stop doing it now!”