​During a semi-virtual meeting on August 11, 2020, the Board of County Commissioners took the following action:
 
COVID-19 – received an update from Dr. Alina Alonso, director of the Florida Department of Health-Palm Beach County, and Bill Johnson, director of Palm Beach County Emergency Management on local COVID-19 mitigation efforts.
 
Statewide, 536,961 total positive cases (531,217 positive residents) have been reported with 8,277 deaths. Palm Beach County has had 37,297 total positive cases (36,944 positive residents) with 936 deaths.
The total people tested positivity rate statewide is 13.36%; Palm Beach County’s rate is just below at 13.22%. Hendry County, which borders Palm Beach County to the west, reports the highest total tested positivity rate in the state at 21.3%.
 
“It would be a disaster to go to Phase 2 (reopening) with these numbers,” said Dr. Alonso. She said 5 percent is the goal, “because that is where it is possible to do effective contact tracing.” The county’s daily lab positivity rate stands at 7.3% and has been steadily going down over the past two weeks, Dr. Alonso noted.
 
Johnson reported a total of 282,189 people to date have been tested throughout the county at 16 government-operated testing sites, 4 nonprofit sites, 97 commercial sites, and via mobile pop-up units and in-home testing. Lower test site numbers over the past two weeks were attributable, in part, to the four-day shutdown for Hurricane Isaias. Over the past week, the countywide hospitalization rate has decreased by about 100 per day, and ICU cases have gone down by an average of 7 fewer per day. ICU utilization in Palm Beach County is about 31 percent, and hospital bed space capacity stands at just at under 50 percent.
 
Census – Assistant County Administrator Patrick Rutter reported the end date for completing 2020 Census forms has been shortened by 31 days to September 30. Enumerators have begun visiting homes in person. Currently, Palm Beach County’s compliance rate is 60.8 percent; statewide is 60.1 percent. Both trail the national compliance rate of 63.2 percent. “Twenty-five of our cities are at or below 60 percent in their self-response rate,” said Rutter. “That’s a critical issue and we all need to really up our game and get moving.” The county receives approximately $1,600 in federal funding for each person who returns a completed census form.
 
Elections – the board appointed Commissioner Gregg Weiss as the BCC’s representative on the Palm Beach County Canvassing Board.