COVID spreads on Miami-Dade County Commission as Joe Martinez tests positive
A second Miami-Dade commissioner tested positive for COVID-19 this week, as the virus continues to spread through the legislative body’s staff as well.
Joe Martinez said Wednesday he’s considering going to the hospital because of back pain following his diagnosis. He said he doesn’t think he caught it last week in the commission chambers, days before the commission’s chairman, Jose “Pepe” Diaz, tested positive.
Instead Martinez, who is vaccinated, thinks he contracted it from his wife, who was feeling ill before Martinez developed symptoms, tested positive this week and was not vaccinated.
“I think it’s a coincidence,” Martinez said of him and Diaz contracting the virus at roughly the same time. “I didn’t get near him.”
The Diaz results set off a testing blitz in the 200-person staff that makes up the commission offices. The chairman’s office didn’t have a tally of COVID-19 test results, citing health confidentiality rules. Raquel Regalado, a commissioner who had COVID earlier in the year, said two staff members tested positive this week while she tested negative.
She said her commission office has been working remotely since the announcement Sunday that Diaz and his chief of staff, Isidro Lopez, had tested positive for COVID-19 after experiencing flu-like symptoms. Both had been fully vaccinated, according to the press release issued that day.
The scattering of known cases on the commission staff follows a rebound in COVID hospitalizations in Miami-Dade, as judged by the doubling of the daily count of Jackson Health Systems patients with COVID. About 73% of Miami-Dade residents age 12 and over have had at least one dose of vaccine, the highest rate in Florida, where the average is 58%.
While the COVID vaccines drastically lower the chances of contracting the virus, they’re also effective at reducing the severity of symptoms for those contract the virus anyway.
Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, who contracted COVID shortly after winning office in November, recently tested negative for the virus, a spokesperson said. On Wednesday, Levine Cava said she’s not seeing a spread of the virus through county government, but concern is rising about increasing cases.
“Obviously, we see the trends,” she said. “We’re urging everybody to be cautious... I am personally going to be wearing masks more often.”
She also said Miami-Dade plans to continue its public efforts to get people vaccinated, which includes county-run vaccination sites. “Other places aren’t pursuing vaccinations,” she said. “We are.”
With two commissioners isolating with COVID and fears of wider exposure from the July 8 meeting, all commission committee meetings were canceled after Monday. It’s not clear what will happen with the commission meeting scheduled for July 20.
In November, Gov. Ron DeSantis ended his emergency suspension of quorum rules that allowed online meetings of local governing boards, forcing commissioners to meet in person for the first time since the spring of 2020. While commissioners can still vote while participating remotely, the commission needs seven people in the chambers to comply with quorum rules — barring a last-minute new order by DeSantis.
Martinez, who has a history of heart troubles, said he received the Pfizer vaccine several months ago. He said pain in his back on top of flu-like symptoms has him concerned enough to seek medical treatment.
“I feel ill,” said Martinez, 63. “I’m probably going to wind up in the hospital now.”
