Coronavirus live updates: Here’s what to know in South Florida on July 14
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.
Broward schools should stay ’100%’ online because of COVID-19, superintendent recommends
6:30 p.m.: Broward County Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie is recommending to the School Board that students should begin the new school year “100%” online if the COVID-19 pandemic does not improve.
Runcie made the announcement Tuesday during a virtual workshop to discuss potential reopening plans. The next meeting is scheduled for July 22.
“When we open schools in the fall, I’m recommending that instruction will be 100% e-learning” if conditions do not improve and it continues to worsen, Runcie said. “That is the only way we can educate our students while keeping them and their teachers healthy and safe.”
Read the full story here.
The French are leaving Miami amid COVID restaurant closures and international student ban
5:45 p.m.: Miami has long been a hub for young aspiring French entrepreneurs and chefs looking to invest in their futures.
But the U.S. travel ban on international students and restaurant closures in Miami-Dade are driving them back to France, according to the French Consulate in Miami.
“My fellow (French) citizens are desperate... People invested in this country, in Miami, and now they are not able to work here and (students could be unable to) reenter the country,” said Laurent Gallissot, Consul General of France in Miami.
On Tuesday’s Bastille Day — a French holiday that commemorates when Parisians stormed the Bastille prison on July 14, 1789, releasing seven prisoners and giving rise to the French Revolution – Gallissot said the French Consulate is focused on outreach to those most impacted by the pandemic.
Read the full story here.
Mayor of Hialeah says DeSantis refused to let him into meeting to discuss COVID-19
5:15 p.m.: The mayor of Hialeah, the second-largest city in Miami-Dade County, said Tuesday that he was denied entry to a roundtable that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis held with several city mayors to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic.
DeSantis announced plans Tuesday morning for the 1 p.m. in-person roundtable at the Stephen P. Clark Government Center in downtown Miami, and members of his staff contacted the mayors of several cities in Miami-Dade County to invite them to the meeting. Hialeah Mayor Carlos Hernandez said he didn’t receive an invitation, but Miami Mayor Francis Suarez informed him the roundtable was taking place.
When Hernandez tried to walk in, he told the Miami Herald, a member of the governor’s staff told him he wasn’t invited and couldn’t enter.
Read the full story here.
Even the judge said he didn’t belong in prison. Florida blew him off. The man just got COVID
4:30 p.m.: William Forrester has 11 more months to come out of prison but fears he won’t.
“I have less than a year left before I go home, I’ve waited 12 years to say that,” he wrote in a July 7 email shared with the Miami Herald.
Six days later, he tested positive for COVID-19.
Since April, he had twice appealed to the Florida Department of Corrections to furlough his sentence and put him in home confinement but to no avail.
“I am 64 years old, COVID could easily kill me. ... Please have mercy on me,” he wrote in his furlough application to the FDC.
Read the full story here.
As COVID-19 surges in Miami-Dade, county and city leaders struggle to see eye to eye
3 p.m.: As COVID-19 has spread through South Florida, the largest cities in Miami-Dade County have often taken a more hard-line approach to businesses closures than the county. It was Miami Mayor Francis Suarez who made the first move to close restaurant dining rooms and bars in mid-March. And as reopening plans were devised in May, Suarez, along with the mayors of Miami Beach, Hialeah and Miami Gardens, took things more slowly than Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez.
Today, as COVID-19 daily case numbers soar and hospitals approach 100% of normal capacity, county and city leaders still aren’t on the same page. But the roles have been reversed. In the past, Gimenez has criticized local officials for issuing stricter orders than he has, saying it causes confusion. But now, Gimenez has imposed new countywide closures — prompting numerous local mayors to slam him for hurting small business owners.
Last Monday, Gimenez announced plans to once again close restaurant dining rooms, gyms, ballrooms and short-term vacation rentals. Later that day, he modified those plans to let outdoor dining continue. He also let gyms stay open with masks required at all times.
Read the full story here.
COVID doesn’t shrink Miami-Dade’s budget: Spending and staffing up for 2021
1:05 p.m.: Miami-Dade is freezing hiring and projecting long-term deficits, but the coronavirus won’t stop county spending from topping $9 billion in 2021 or prevent the work force from growing slightly, according to the budget proposal from Mayor Carlos Gimenez.
Still, the coronavirus crisis is a dominant theme in the three-volume spending plan, which includes budgets for the county-owned Miami International Airport, PortMiami, the transit system and county jails.
Read the full story here.
Florida adds 132 deaths, highest fatality toll, as coronavirus cases surpass 290,600
12:50 p.m.: Florida’s Department of Health on Tuesday confirmed 9,194 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the state’s total known cases to 291,629. There were also 132 new deaths announced, bringing the statewide death toll to hit 4,409.
The 132 deaths are the most the health department has confirmed within a 24-hour period, although it does not necessarily mean that all of the people died in the past 24 hours. Previously, the highest single-day toll was reported on Thursday with 120 deaths.
Read the full story here.
COVID-19 Cases in Florida
ICE detainee dies of COVID at South Florida hospital — the state’s first immigration death
10:15 a.m.: A 51-year-old immigration detainee died Sunday at a Palm Beach County hospital after testing positive for the coronavirus. The Mexican national’s death is Florida’s first reported COVID-19 death of a detainee.
The detainee — identified by U.S. Immigration and Custom’s Enforcement late Monday as Onoval Perez-Montufa — was transported to a hospital about two weeks ago from the Glades County Detention Center in Moore Haven, a facility that is now among the top 10 centers with the highest number of COVID cases.
Read the full story here.
You should resign’: Activist speaks out against DeSantis for how he’s handled COVID-19
10 a.m.: A Miami-based activist interrupted a Monday press conference by Gov. Ron DeSantis and Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, calling attention to government shortcomings that intensified the spread of COVID-19 in the state.
“Shame on you,” he said. “You are an embarrassment... We’re getting record-breaking cases every day, and you are doing nothing.”
The heckler who cried out at DeSantis’ press conference at Jackson Memorial Hospital was Tomas Kennedy, the Florida director of United We Dream, a national immigrant advocacy group.
Read the full story here.
Faster COVID testing needed, DeSantis says, in talking at Jackson about rise in cases
9:45 a.m.: Gov. Ron DeSantis acknowledged on Monday that Floridians are not getting their coronavirus test results fast enough.
“There’s a need for faster results,” DeSantis said at a news conference at Miami’s Jackson Memorial Hospital. “When people go through, a lot of times they’re not getting their results back for seven days. Obviously we want to improve that.”
Read the full story here.
After wave of younger COVID patients, older patients return to Miami’s public hospitals
9:25 a.m.: At Miami-Dade County’s public hospitals, weeks of relative quiet in the COVID units reversed course in mid-June, giving way to younger-trending patients in a resurgence of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
But over the last week, it became apparent throughout Jackson Health System that the increase in community spread had reached those most vulnerable to the virus — people over the age of 80. As of Monday, the hospital network had 65 such patients, compared to 46 the previous Monday, and 34 on the one before that.
Read the full story here.
CATCH UP TO START THE DAY
9:20 a.m.: Here are the coronavirus headlines to catch you up on what’s happening around South Florida and the state as Tuesday begins.
Florida sees more than 12,600 new coronavirus cases as Miami-Dade total hits 67,713
This iconic Miami Beach hotel recently reopened. Coronavirus is making it close again
Key West issues a stricter mandatory mask law as COVID-19 cases rise
At the ‘epicenter’ of the COVID pandemic, Miami-Dade mayor resists more closures
