WIMAUMA, Fla. — A steady stream of vehicles went through the Wimauma COVID-19 testing site Monday morning -- one of the county's newest in an area with a sizable farmworker population.
But community leaders say its unfair to blame the increased spread of the virus in Florida on farmworkers, contrary to what Gov. Ron DeSantis has recently claimed.
What You Need To Know
- DeSantis last week attributed rise in positive cases to partly to rise in isolated farm worker communities
- Claims had Democrats calling for DeSantis to issue an apology
- Wimauma community leaders want to see more testing sites in the area
- More coronavirus stories
"We know that the entire south shore area, numbers are increasing," said Enterprising Latinas deputy director Ileana Cintron. "Yes, because more testing is being done, but also because there’s more community transmission and the economy opened and people feel more free to go out and about."
Just days ago, the Governor singled out Hispanic farm workers while explaining that the majority of new positive COVID-19 cases in Florida were relatively isolated, saying their living conditions are conducive to community spread of the virus.
“When you have workers like that that are living in really close confines, sometimes multi-generational, but the real close extended contact in those living conditions is really conductive for having this spread,” DeSantis said last week.
The number of cases in Wimauma has doubled in the past three weeks. That’s why community leaders say increasing access to testing is so important.
Many people in the area have a tough time with transportation, so the ease of having a testing site nearby will make things a lot easier.
"We found that it was much harder for people to get to the main sites, so we started opening up smaller sites further out," said Hillsborough County code enforcement supervisor David Cansler.
This is something Enterprising Latinas, along with a coalition of other area organizations, have been pushing for since March.
"We had elevated that need to the Department of health and the county, saying we need to increase testing here and how can we do it," Cintron said.
Cintron believes the current Wimauma testing site will likely be even busier in the coming weeks as Hillsborough County's cases continue to rise.
Testing will take place every Monday and Wednesday from 8 a.m. - 11 a.m. at the Wimauma Opportunity Center. Appointments are strongly recommended.
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