Coronavirus live updates: Here’s what to know in South Florida on July 10
We’re keeping track of the latest news regarding the coronavirus in South Florida and around the state. Check back for updates throughout the day.
Restaurants protest Miami-Dade mayor’s latest dining room shutdown
4:20 p.m.: Dozens of independent Miami restaurant owners closed their shops and showed up downtown Friday to protest the recent Miami-Dade county order that shut their restaurant dining rooms.
Carrying signs with slogans like, “no science, no closures,” the hastily unified group of small business owners demanded that county mayor Carlos Gimenez produce data — from contact tracers or otherwise — that showed a recent spike in Miami-Dade COVID-19 infections could be tracked to restaurants. Restaurant owners say they have been singled out, while the mayor’s order, which went into effect July 9, allows gyms, construction sites and office spaces to stay open.
Read the full story here.
Local 10 anchor Louis Aguirre answers questions about his coronavirus diagnosis
3:30 p.m.: Local 10 Miami news anchor Louis Aguirre talked to his fans and followers about his coronavirus diagnosis this week. The veteran South Florida reporter said he has few, if any, symptoms and is quarantining at home. He’s luckier that some of his colleagues, so far.
Aguirre is calling for more contact tracing to help stop Florida’s runaway spread of COVID-19.
“Our state government has dropped the ball on this, but we can and must be proactive,” Aguirre posted on social media. “If you tested positive or think you might have been exposed, please reach out to a contact tracer.”
Read the full story here.
Donald Trump doesn’t wear a mask while greeting Republicans at Miami airport
1:20 p.m.: President Donald Trump stepped off Air Force One Friday in Miami, into one of the worst coronavirus hotspots in the country.
He wasn’t wearing a mask, though Miami-Dade County has a mask-wearing mandate in public.
After his arrival at 12:15 p.m., Trump walked down the plane’s stairs and spoke briefly with Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, a Republican running for Congress with Trump’s endorsement, who imposed the mask-wearing rule as COVID-19 cases have soared.
Trump didn’t head straight to the limo.
Read the full story here.
Pence claim of COVID-19 ‘flattening’ contradicted by Florida data
12:15 p.m.: At a coronavirus task force briefing Wednesday, Vice President Mike Pence touted Florida data that he said showed the COVID-19 outbreak was waning in Florida and that the state was again flattening the curve.
“We’re actually seeing early indications of a percent of positive testing flattening in Arizona and Florida and Texas,” Pence said.
But Florida Department of Health data analyzed by the Miami Herald show the percentage of people testing positive each day is still trending upward in Florida. Other indicators are similarly troubling and contradict the White House’s hopeful message.
On Friday, the state fell just short of a record high with 11,433 new confirmed cases, according to the health department.
Over the last two weeks, Florida’s daily positivity rate — the percentage of individuals testing positive out of total tested — has increased from a three-day average of 11.22% to 15.96%.
“When I saw that [Pence] clip, I got nauseous because it’s obvious propaganda,” said Eric Topol, head of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in San Diego.
.@realDonaldTrump does not wear a mask departing AF1 in Miami, as the state reports over 11,000 new COVID-19 cases on Friday
— Alex Daugherty (@alextdaugherty) July 10, 2020
Read the full story here.
Florida adds 11,433 coronavirus cases, just short of a daily record high
11:45 a.m.: Florida’s Department of Health on Friday confirmed 11,433 new cases of COVID-19, making it the second highest single-day total recorded since the pandemic began in March.
The highest 24-hour total recorded in the state was on Saturday, with 11,458 new cases.
Florida now has 244,151 confirmed cases. There were also 93 new deaths announced, raising the statewide death toll to 4,102.
Read the full story here.
Teenager died after attending church party as Florida reopened
10:15 a.m.: The reopening of First Youth Church in Fort Myers on June 10 after three months of remote sermons was going to be a party. No kid would want to miss the event, a Facebook flier promised.
Sixteen-year-old Carsyn Davis was a dedicated student at the Fort Myers youth ministry, her family said.
Carsyn didn’t wear a mask when she attended the party, even though she was obese, asthmatic, and had a history of childhood cancer and a rare autoimmune disorder, according to a county medical examiner’s report. None of the other kids around her wore masks either — wearing a mask wasn’t required by state officials despite the known risks of indoor transmission.
Less than two weeks later, on June 23, the teen died of pneumonia brought on by COVID-19. At the time, Carsyn was the youngest person in Florida to die from the disease. Her persistent health issues contributed to her death, according to the medical examiner report.
Now Carsyn’s death has become tangled up in the super-heated politics of COVID-19. As experts question Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Department of Health for the fast pace of reopening — and for not mandating mask wearing — they worry that more vulnerable people like Carsyn will die amid misinformation and mixed signals cascading out of the White House.
Read the full story here.
Miami-Dade bus driver dies of COVID as virus leaves county understaffed, riders stuck
8:45 a.m.: A county bus operator last on the job in late June has died after a COVID-19 diagnosis, Miami-Dade’s transit agency confirmed as it reported growing transportation problems from the latest spike in coronavirus infections in Florida’s hardest-hit region.
The unnamed operator tested positive for COVID-19 at some point in June, and was last at work June 25, according to statements from the county’s Department of Transportation and Public Works. It did not provide a precise date of the positive test or the date of death. In confirming the death after an inquiry from the Miami Herald, the agency initially said the driver had been home on leave since March. It later said that timeline was an error based on a misreading of the employee’s records. The county did not release details of the driver’s past route.
Read the full story here.
Exponential virus growth strains Miami-Dade’s largest hospitals
8:40 a.m.: One of the largest hospital systems in South Florida said its facilities are nearing capacity as the region’s COVID-19 crisis continued to escalate on Thursday, filling hospital beds and further straining doctors and nurses who have been caring for patients since March.
At Baptist Health South Florida, which has six hospitals in Miami-Dade, two in Monroe and three in Palm Beach counties, the pace of new patient admissions for the virus is testing the healthcare system’s limits even after administrators recently postponed non-emergency surgeries.
“Most of our hospitals are at capacity but we’re able to manage the capacity for now,” said Bo Boulenger, chief operating officer for Baptist Health. “We are seeing a very high rate of people needing to be admitted to our hospitals because of the virus. It is double the admission rate during the peak in early April.”
Read the full story here.
CATCH UP TO START THE DAY
8:30 a.m.: Here are the coronavirus headlines to catch you up on what’s happening around South Florida and the state as Friday begins.
▪ An 11-year-old Broward girl has died from COVID-19, health officials say.
▪ Miami-Dade launching $10 million rent relief program for COVID. It won’t last long.
▪ Florida counties get $138 million federal boost for public health workers.
