Coronavirus
Second Miami-Dade death from COVID-19 reported. State surpasses 3,000 coronavirus cases.
Miami-Dade County
Nine-car crash involving Miami-Dade fire truck hospitalizes six people, reports say
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\n\n Broadway stars Laura Benanti and Lin-Manuel Miranda urged student thespians whose high school musicals were canceled to send them performance videos using the hashtag #SunshineSongs.\n
\n“I want to be your audience!” \n Thank you, @LauraBenanti, thank you kids, I'm watching too. #SunshineSongs https://t.co/TGO5n7h6H7
Rolling Stone magazine has partnered with IGTV to present “In My Room,” and its first two guest artists were Angelique Kidjo singing “Gimme Shelter” from home in Paris and Brian Wilson performing from home in California.
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\n\n Lots of intimate gigs can ease melancholy daily at Global Citizen’s #AtHomeTogether, Isol-Aid, Quaran-Stream, Couch Party, Homechella, Lockdown Livetream and Penned Up.\n
\nNew York’s \n Lincoln Center At Home opened a portal with \n pop-up classes, a trove of \n videos, and live-streams from “empty halls and living rooms.”\n
\n\n In South Florida, the show goes on with gusto despite shuttered stages. What virtual performances may lack in acoustics they make up for in price. You can’t beat free.\n
\nNo more outdoor Wallcasts this season, but the\n New World Symphony is performing on Facebook. UM’s Frost School of Music has Friday night rebroadcasts of concerts. Local nightclubs and musicians are welcoming audiences to virtual piano bars, tango lessons and jam sessions. \n Area Stage has virtual acting classes.\n
\n\n Coral Gables Art Cinema converted to a “Drive-In” theater showing curated movies on its website, which won’t “replicate the experience of watching a movie on the big screen surrounded by a crowd of movie lovers” but will provide “solace in trying times,” the website says.\n
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\nMuseums and attractions offer virtual exhibition tours, blogs and science experiments. \n Zoo Miami is closed, but its Meercam is filming those adorable meerkats. The \n Dade Heritage Trust created a digital tour of 12 downtown Miami sites. The \n O, Miami Poetry Festival canceled events, “but you know as well as we do how powerful shared language can be in uncertain times, and we are committed to providing space for that language, even if that space is only virtual.” \n Everglades National Park has set up a webcam feed, and \n Big Cypress National Preserve has an online photo gallery.\n
\n\n Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, recognizing “the new normal” and “the importance of outdoor living,” launched #MyFairchild, a resource for how to grow tomatoes and sweet potatoes, kids crafts, meet-our-scientists streams and “mindful moments” — videos of garden scenes, like a waterfall in the rainforest section.\n
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\nThe least satisfying flight of fancy is virtual travel. It’s a poor substitute as borders close, airlines slash service and travelers are grounded. But for those feeling restless or saddened by canceled trips, there are outlets for traveling the world without having to wedge into airplane seats.
\n\n Travel Zoo compiled a bucket list of 20 can’t-miss digital experiences. Paris may be on lockdown, but the \n Louvre is open for online tours. Visit Ireland’s \n Cliffs of Moher, China’s \n Great Wall, India’s \n Taj Mahal, Peru’s \n Machu Picchu, London’s \n Buckingham Palace. Take an interactive 3,000-foot climb up \n El Capitan at Yosemite National Park. Scream from the front seat of California’s \n GhostRider Wooden Roller Coaster. Go on \n safari. Dive our disappearing \n reefs. There are countless virtual vacations to sweep you away. You can even do \n Napa Valley wine tasting from home.\n
\nSuffering from live sports withdrawal symptoms? So far, the most successful replication has been NASCAR’s iRacing platform, a video game simulation in which pro drivers race around a digital track from their homes. But fans loved watching Denny Hamlin beat Dale Earnhardt Jr. down the stretch at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
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\nGiven that most sports require team play, physical contact and dense gatherings of fans, there’s not much on offer as a virtual version of competition. Spain’s La Liga soccer clubs held an Esports FIFA tournament with the top gamer on each team controlling the action. Marco Asensio led Real Madrid to the title.
\nThe American sports scene has largely been reduced to replays of classic games on sports TV, such as the re-broadcasts of two World Series Game 7s on what should have been baseball’s Opening Day. Steph Curry can’t play basketball, but he did interview Dr. Anthony Fauci on Instagram.
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\n“Boredom is your imagination calling to you,” says Sherry Turkle, MIT professor and author of “Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age,” and “Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other.”
\nTurkle, who has been studying digital culture for 30 years, sees a creative, resourceful, communal spirit on social media knitting together the great divides caused by home confinement.
\nPeople are rallying to help those in need and using the internet to do it. Neighbors checking on the elderly via Next Door; virtual trivia nights to raise money for unemployed bartenders, and a Miami prayer group has switched its gathering spot \n “from rooftops to laptops,” and Chef Jose Andres posting videos on how to wash hands or make his mom’s lentil stew.\n
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\nAs with other upheavals throughout history, such as the Great Depression, World War II, the rise of HIV/AIDS, 9/11 and the Great Recession, the coronavirus pandemic will bring a lasting reorientation of everyday life in the United States, \n which has surpassed China in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases.\n
\nThe convenience and comfort of virtual routines could make us forget how to go offline. What if we become addicted to the passive ease of clicking and nesting-in-place?
\nJobs will change as employers resistant to telecommuting wake up and realize productivity increases and expenses decrease when employees don’t have to waste time and destroy the environment driving into a useless office or flying to a meeting more efficiently conducted via teleconference.
\nAs more tasks are performed online, an already \n decimated labor force could see a radical rearrangement toward the Amazon business model, where deliveries to stay-at-homebodies dominate the consumer economy.\n
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\n“Coronavirus could hasten the replacement of humans by computers,” Harvey said.
\nThe entertainment industry, rocked by iTunes and Netflix, could be rocked again: Why pay $12 at the movie theater (plus $7 for popcorn), $75 for a theater ticket or $120 for a rock concert — while surrounded by possible host carriers of the next coronavirus?
\nIntractable partisan politics during the pandemic have heightened calls for a \n virtual U.S. Congress, enabling leaders to spend more time in their communities listening to constituents than inside the Beltway listening to lobbyists.\n
\nCoronavirus, the scourge that pulled us apart, might just have a rebound effect, and bring us back together when it’s conquered. What did Barbra Streisand sing? People who need people are the luckiest people in the world. Starved for actual face-to-face chats, we’ll fling aside the damned keyboard, repair the fissures in American society, re-embrace globalization and break out in block-long conga lines.
\n“Our yearning for social connection and physical touch is what makes us human,” Alhajji said. “When a mom hugs her baby, hormones are released.”
\nFree from quarantine, blinking in the sun, humans might just choose to unplug, and trade virtual life for the real thing.
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\n","template_type":"","story_teaser":"","lead_media":{"id":"17725007","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/nightlife/g6bx23/picture225605590","asset_type":"picture","state":"published","title":"Miami Summer Wine Guide","publication":"miamiherald","layout_option":"","home":"/web/v1/sections/90590","modified_date":1585344734,"allow_comments":false,"published_date":1549471545,"thumbnail":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/nightlife/g6bx23/picture225605590/alternates/FREE_1140/Miami%20Summer%20Wine%20Guide","href":"/web/v1/content/17725007","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["90590","90587"],"credit":"Herald file","dateline":"","caption":"Yes, you can pretend you’re in a California vineyard while cooped up at home by doing a virtual wine tasting.","is_mugshot":false,"text_alignment":"Default","summary":"","byline":"","kicker":""},"owner":"Miami","allow_comments":true,"image":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/nightlife/g6bx23/picture225605590/alternates/LANDSCAPE_768/Miami%20Summer%20Wine%20Guide"},{"id":"17724956","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article17724956.html","asset_type":"story","state":"published","title":"More curfews announced in Miami-Dade as cities want stricter rules tied to coronavirus","publication":"miamiherald","layout_option":"none","home":"/web/v1/sections/93341","home_section":{"name":"Coronavirus","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/"},"modified_date":1585583330,"published_date":1585343925,"thumbnail":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/latest-news/cdgdx1/picture236547403/alternates/LANDSCAPE_768/Coral%20Gables%20City%20Hall.jpg","authors":[{"name":"Douglas Hanks","email":"dhanks@miamiherald.com"}],"access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["93341","7296","3986","7292","7308"],"credit":"","dateline":"","summary":"Coral Gables, Miami Gardens and Sweetwater join other cities in imposing curfews during the coronavirus crisis. Miami-Dade has not issued a countywide curfew. The curfews begin between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. and end at 5 a.m.","content":"\n
More cities announced restrictions on residents Friday with an \n expanding network of curfews forcing people to stay indoors under most circumstances.\n
\n\n Miami Gardens, the county’s third-largest city, posted a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew, effective Friday. Coral Gables\n announced a curfew starting Friday as well, but it begins at 11 p.m., as does a \n new curfew in Sweetwater. They join Miami-Dade’s largest city, Miami, which imposed a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew that begins Friday night. \n
\nRaúl Valdés-Fauli, mayor of Coral Gables, said he’s in favor of measures that take people off the street as much as possible. But he said his city is launching a curfew during the COVID-19 crisis because Miami did.
\n“I’m trying to prevent people from Miami from coming to Coral Gables and doing whatever they can,” he said. “This is a very defensive measure.”
\nOther cities with 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfews include: Miami Beach and Sunny Isles Beach. Other 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfews include Homestead and North Miami Beach.
\nAll the curfews include exceptions for work and seeking medical attention. On Wednesday, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez said he did not see a need for a\n countywide curfew, and that enforcing one would be a needless burden on county police. \n
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\n","template_type":"","story_teaser":"","lead_media":{"id":"17725013","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/latest-news/cdgdx1/picture236547403","asset_type":"picture","state":"published","title":"Coral Gables City Hall.jpg","publication":"miamiherald","layout_option":"","home":"/web/v1/sections/3986","modified_date":1585344318,"allow_comments":false,"published_date":1571793507,"thumbnail":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/latest-news/cdgdx1/picture236547403/alternates/FREE_1140/Coral%20Gables%20City%20Hall.jpg","href":"/web/v1/content/17725013","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["3986"],"credit":"","dateline":"","caption":"Coral Gables City Hall","photographer":"Lance Dixon/Miami Herald archives","is_mugshot":false,"text_alignment":"Default","summary":"","byline":"","kicker":""},"owner":"Miami","allow_comments":true,"image":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/latest-news/cdgdx1/picture236547403/alternates/LANDSCAPE_768/Coral%20Gables%20City%20Hall.jpg"},{"id":"17724611","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article17724611.html","asset_type":"story","state":"published","title":"For Miami alcohol and drug addicts, recovery is tough enough. Then came the coronavirus","publication":"miamiherald","layout_option":"none","home":"/web/v1/sections/93341","home_section":{"name":"Coronavirus","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/"},"modified_date":1585583328,"published_date":1585476000,"thumbnail":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/health-care/r4x1mi/picture92499982/alternates/LANDSCAPE_768/MIAMI%20HIV%20Jose%2003%20EKM","authors":[{"name":"David Ovalle","email":"dovalle@miamiherald.com"},{"name":"Carli Teproff","email":"cteproff@miamiherald.com"}],"keywords":"rehab, coronavirus, Alcoholics Anonymous, AA, narcotics, substance abuse, COVID-19, Zoom, In the Rooms, 12 Steps","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["93341","7273","3985","3986","7307","7292","7287"],"credit":"","dateline":"","summary":"South Florida group addiction programs have closed to avoid spreading the coronavirus. People in recovery, and substance-abuse rehabilitation professionals, to move to online platforms such as In the Rooms and Zoom.","content":"\n
Alcohol, cocaine, pain pills — since he was a teenager, Derrick consumed them all, at one time or another, to ease his racing mind. His addictions landed in and out of rehab centers.
\nFinally, at 35, Derrick was in a better place. He made a good living working construction in Miami. He exercised regularly. Derrick completed one year of sobriety through a 12-step program, attended five or more meetings a week and met often with his sponsor to improve his spiritual health.
\nThen, the coronavirus upended his recovery.
\nDerrick’s group meetings have been shut down. He’s working fewer hours. And when he’s at a construction site, he’s terrified of catching the highly infectious respiratory virus because of his asthma.
\n“I went like 2 1/2 weeks without a meeting and I was starting to get a little messed up in the head,” said Derrick, who asked that his last name not be used. “The anxiety and fear was starting to get to me.”
\nBut like many recovering addicts grappling with the sudden shutdown of society, Derrick has turned to meetings through teleconferencing services such as \n Zoom and \n In The Rooms, a free website that specializes in hosting recovery groups. Virtual 12-step meetings are attracting thousands of new users, many stuck in isolation, without work, resisting the temptation to use. \n
\nGetting clean is challenging enough in regular times, and the coronavirus has also upended South Florida’s fragile care system for people battling alcohol and substance abuse, putting many more at risk of relapsing and overdosing.
\nSubstance-abuse therapists have traded in couches for platforms such as Skype or Facetime as some South Florida residential rehab centers have stopped accepting new patients for fear they might infect existing clients. Because there’s been a steep drop-off in patient visits, clinics are bracing for private insurance and federal government reimbursements to vanish, forcing layoffs of counselors and staff.
\nDoctors fear Medicaid patients will run out of their supplies of drugs such as suboxone, which is used to treat opioid addiction, because of strict state requirements that they get drug tested and visit doctors in person.
\nAnd fewer people are turning to the judicial system to push their loved ones into treatment. Normally, Miami-Dade courts process about 10 petitions a week for hearings known as “Marchman Acts.” Since March 16, only one to two petitions are being received weekly.
\n“Social distancing in a court setting is of great concern,” said Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Yvonne Colodny, who is working to arrange virtual hearings during the ongoing global pandemic.
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\nSubstance abuse itself has been a long-running crisis in the United States. In 2017, an estimated 20.7 million people ages 12 or older needed treatment for substance use treatment — or about 1 in 13 people, according to the \n National Survey on Drug Use and Health.\n
\nThe \n country’s opioid addiction problem has been well chronicled in the United States and in Miami, where deaths associated with \n fentanyl and other types of synthetic heroin jumped dramatically a few years ago. Crystal meth has \n made a comeback in South Florida. So has cocaine, \n according to federal researchers and law enforcement.\n
\nIn South Florida, there is no uniform way for drug and alcohol abusers to get treatment. Clinics, rehab centers and individual therapists get paid through a patchwork of public money, private health insurance companies and families paying out of their own pockets.
\nThriving Mind, which was formerly known as the South Florida Behavioral Health Network, manages state funding that each year helps about 50,000 people dealing with mental illness or substance abuse, or both. The organization contracts with about 40 providers, clinics big and small, rehab centers and companies that provide in-home treatment.
\nThriving Mind said it is working with the Florida Department of Children and Families to try to \n keep payments to providers flowing, to ensure rehab professionals don’t lose their jobs and patients are still getting help.\n
\n“For the most part, it’s hobbling along,” said Thriving Mind CEO John Newcomer, adding: \n “We may well see an uptick in the need for services as we move on. We’re just trying to make sure the system is intact.”\n
\n\n Even if DCF keeps payments flowing, many clinics that treat substance abuse will still suffer because private insurance companies and Medicaid will not reimburse them if they’re not seeing patients, he said.\n
\nMedicaid has also become a concern for Dr. Hansel Tookes, of the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine division of infectious diseases. Tookes works with opioid addicts, and has been lobbying Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration to lift strict requirements for getting refills of medication used to treat their illness.
\nThose requirements include in-person drug screenings at labs, group therapies and visits to doctors, all tough asks when you’re supposed to be sheltering at home. If addicts run out of their medications such as suboxone, they may wind up overdosing on poor quality street drugs — and they’ll crowd hospital emergency rooms needed to treat COVID-19 patients, Tookes said.
\n“This is a time of anxiety for a lot of people, and we need to be making it easier for them to get these medications,” said Tookes, who also founded a \n pioneering needle exchange program in Overtown that is still operating, albeit with staffers in masks and gloves accepting dirty needles through a window.\n
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\nFor now, rehab facilities — of which there are hundreds in Florida — are taking it day by day.
\nBanyan Treatment Centers, which has five locations in Florida, says it is “\n reducing the amount of close contact among patients and staff,” and doing a “thorough cleaning and sanitation of facilities and supplies on a regular basis.”\n
\nSouth Beach Detox, a private 34-bed adult residential program in North Miami Beach, is still accepting patients but “under strict protocols” including a pre-screening by phone, and another one once the client arrives at the facility.
\nOutside of treatment centers, recovering addicts have turned to virtual platforms.
\nMark, a Miami Beach lawyer who asked his real name not be used, has seven years sober and is a regular member of a Miami Beach Alcoholics Anonymous group. When city officials began curbing mass gatherings, his group moved meetings to a nearby park, where gatherings were limited to less than 10 people.
\nThen, Miami Beach ordered its parks closed. Meetings went entirely online onto Zoom. “My problem is that I’m out of my routine. Addicts and alcoholics don’t like change, and my reality changes every 72 hours,” Mark said. “I’ve joined a Zoom group from New York, and it’s given me a different perspective and introspection in my own recovery.”
\nKevin Sullivan knows how a global crisis can wreck sobriety.
\nThe New York restaurateur spent more than two decades clean until 2009, when the worldwide recession destroyed his finances. Before long, his family relationships ruined, Sullivan was again drinking beers, snorting cocaine and taking ecstasy.
\nSullivan, 59, is sober again, seven years in and living in Miami Beach. He’s been doing Zoom meetings, and helping homeless addicts get meals and set up apps on their phones. He worries that people who are new in recovery will suffer the most because they won’t have access to people with many years under their belts.
\n“This is hard on everybody,” he said. “But even harder for those who really need that face-to-face support.”
\nSubstance abuse expert Dr. David Fawcett, of Wilton Manors, said rehab professionals have pivoted quickly to online, even if it doesn’t quite replace face-to-face meetings.
\n“Communication is a little more awkward and people talk over each other,” Fawcett said. “You don’ t have the social cues you do if you are sitting in a room with somebody, but it’s better than nothing.”
\nFawcett hosts a group meeting for gay men addicted to “chemsex,” or sex enhanced by drugs such as cocaine and meth, on the website In The Rooms.
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\nUser traffic has swelled at In The Rooms, a free recovery website that virtually hosts meets such as Alcohol Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, and Overeaters Anonymous. The website, started by South Florida businessmen and recovering alcoholics Ronald Tannebaum and Kenny Pomerance, surpassed 625,000 members this week.
\nThis month, the site is averaging about 2,000 new members per day. In The Rooms, which is supported by some advertising and donations, has added a slew of new meetings and a slate of around-the-clock AA meetings.
\n\n “We just started a coronavirus support group,” Tannebaum said. “We’ve had some days of over 3,500 sign-ups.”\n
\nOn the screen, the person running the meeting appears in a box on the upper lefthand corner, the person speaking in the middle, a queue of people waiting to speak on the right.
\nOne recent afternoon meeting for alcohol recovery featured over 400 people, with people sharing their stories in two-minute segments. Some showed their faces on camera; many others did not. One Canadian woman was attending virtually while in self-isolation because she’d just returned from a trip to Florida: “I’m grateful we have a roof over our heads and food to eat.”
\nSaid Pomerance: “Solitude is a killer for us. People are reaching out during such a weird disjointed time. People are thirsting for that connection.”
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\n","template_type":"","story_teaser":"","lead_media":{"id":"17725004","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/health-care/r4x1mi/picture92499982","asset_type":"picture","state":"published","title":"MIAMI HIV Jose 03 EKM","publication":"miamiherald","layout_option":"","home":"/web/v1/sections/7273","modified_date":1585344808,"allow_comments":false,"published_date":1469755237,"thumbnail":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/health-care/r4x1mi/picture92499982/alternates/FREE_1140/MIAMI%20HIV%20Jose%2003%20EKM","href":"/web/v1/content/17725004","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["7273"],"credit":"emichot@miamiherald.com","dateline":"","caption":"Jose De Lemos, 53, and Dr. Hansel Tookes, a University of Miami medical resident, outside of Jackson Memorial Hospital after a recent visit. De Lemos, who has HIV, is being treated by Tookes. Tookes has been leading the fight to help reduce HIV infections by starting a needle exchange pilot program in Miami-Dade.","photographer":"Emily Michot","is_mugshot":false,"text_alignment":"Default","summary":"","byline":"","kicker":""},"owner":"Miami","allow_comments":true,"image":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/health-care/r4x1mi/picture92499982/alternates/LANDSCAPE_768/MIAMI%20HIV%20Jose%2003%20EKM"},{"id":"17724872","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article17724872.html","asset_type":"story","state":"published","title":"Miami’s under curfew, but its residents took their partying to their balconies","publication":"miamiherald","layout_option":"none","home":"/web/v1/sections/93341","home_section":{"name":"Coronavirus","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/"},"modified_date":1585583311,"published_date":1585366640,"authors":[{"name":"Devoun Cetoute","email":"dcetoute@miamiherald.com"}],"keywords":"coronavirus, miami, curfew, party, balcony, music, what is that, noise, downtown miami, brickell","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["93341","7294","7299","3985","3986","7292"],"credit":"","dateline":"","summary":"The City of Miami was placed under a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew on Friday night. Miami residents danced, cheered, banged pots and pans and partied from their balconies during the city’s first curfew.","content":"\n
From Italy to Spain to India, videos of people on their balconies singing, dancing and \n cheering on medical professionals on the frontlines of the novel coronavirus pandemic have taken the world by storm. \n
\nOn Friday, city of Miami residents showed that same support for caregivers. They didn’t let coronavirus-caused curfews dull their fun as videos poured onto social media showing cheering, clapping, singing and dancing.
\nOn Wednesday, Miami’s five commissioners voted unanimously to start a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew on Friday night. During the curfew, police would be able to stop, question and arrest anyone outside.
\nAs Miami’s first curfew began, its residents might have stayed home but they didn’t do it quietly. At The Mint Condominium, 92 SW Third St., residents chanted “Miami! Miami! Miami!” from their balconies.
\nAdrian Brito, who was visiting a cousin, grabbed his phone and started recording.
\n“Believe it or not, at that moment I was proud to be a Miamian,” Brito said.
\nAfter chanting, residents blasted classic Miami house music from their condos and danced, Brito said. Some apartments had party lights and at one point someone lit a flare on a balcony.
\nNear Brickell World Plaza, Twitter user Nicole, @xoxonicolee_, recordered residents dancing and cheering from nearby apartments as music carried over Brickell Avenue.
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\nOver by Brickell City Centre, Christopher Medeiros tweeted video of residents banging pots and pans, whistling and clapping as music played low somewhere in downtown Miami.
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\nTania Leets also caught video from her balcony of Brickell residents clapping for caregivers.
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\nThis is something countries all over the world have taken part in. CNN reported that Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for the people to express gratitude for the nation’s healthcare workers. The people did just that. They stood in their doorways and on balconies applauding, ringing bells and blowing conch shells
\nMiami residents be under the curfew until further notice. There are only six exceptions to the curfew:
\n\n ▪ Essential state, county and city emergency personnel, such as police, fire rescue and ambulances\n
\n\n ▪ Utility emergency repair crews\n
\n\n ▪ Emergency calls by physicians\n
\n\n ▪ Food delivery and third-party food delivery services\n
\n\n ▪ Walking dogs within 250 feet of the owner’s home\n
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\n","template_type":"","story_teaser":"","owner":"Miami","allow_comments":true,"image":""},{"id":"17724590","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article17724590.html","asset_type":"story","state":"published","title":"Three TSA employees at Miami International Airport test positive for the coronavirus","publication":"miamiherald","layout_option":"none","home":"/web/v1/sections/93341","home_section":{"name":"Coronavirus","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/"},"modified_date":1585583270,"published_date":1585528956,"thumbnail":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/latest-news/tb3bvd/picture224543030/alternates/LANDSCAPE_768/tsa%20creole.jpg","authors":[{"name":"Monique O. Madan","email":"mmadan@miamiherald.com"}],"keywords":"tsa, coronavirus, covid 19, covid19, mia, miami, miami international airport, florida, Transportation Security Administration","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["93341","3986","7292","7336","7287"],"credit":"","dateline":"","summary":"Three Transportation Security Administration employees stationed at Miami International Airport tested positive for COVID-19, officials said. Airport leaders say the airport has since been deep cleaned.","content":"\n
Three Transportation Security Administration agents at Miami International Airport have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to federal officials.
\nThe three screening officers — which were based at checkpoints D3, F and H — last reported to work on March 16, 20 and 22. It is unclear if coworkers who had contact with the agents that tested positive for COVID-19 were told to stay home as well.
\nMIA airport spokesman Gregory Chin told the Miami Herald that the work areas were immediately deep cleaned.
\n“The Miami-Dade Aviation Department was notified by the TSA each day that they were made aware of a positive test result, and each work area was deep cleaned that day as well,” Chin told the Herald.“
\nAccording to TSA, the agency recently began to provide eye protection and N-95 masks to its employees. Prior to that, officials offered their employees optional surgical masks. Agents have always been required to wear gloves.
\n“TSA remains committed to the health and safety of our workforce and is now authorizing the use of eye protection and N95 respirators for employees,” said TSA spokesman Mark J. Howell. “Employees have had the option to wear surgical masks since the beginning of the pandemic, and use of TSA standard nitrile gloves continues to be mandatory when screening an individual or their property, which adds an additional layer of protection. Any swabs utilized as part of a screening procedure [checkpoint and checked baggage] will not be reused for multiple passengers.”
\n ","kicker":"","text_alignment":"Left","href":"/web/v1/content/17724590","allow_ads":true,"allow_stn_player":true,"highline_factoids":[{"id":"1"},{"id":"2"},{"id":"3"},{"id":"4"},{"id":"5"}],"byline":"\n
\n","template_type":"","story_teaser":"","lead_media":{"id":"17724599","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/latest-news/tb3bvd/picture224543030","asset_type":"picture","state":"published","title":"tsa creole.jpg","publication":"miamiherald","layout_option":"","home":"/web/v1/sections/3986","modified_date":1585524745,"allow_comments":false,"published_date":1547514233,"thumbnail":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/latest-news/tb3bvd/picture224543030/alternates/FREE_1140/tsa%20creole.jpg","href":"/web/v1/content/17724599","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["3986"],"credit":"dhanks@miamiherald.com","dateline":"","caption":"TSA workers at Miami International Airport load up free meals donated by the Chef Créole restaurant for federal employees working without pay during the shutdown. This was the first day of the giveaway, on Monday, Jan. 14, 2019, and the restaurant had distributed more than 300 free meals at the airport.","photographer":"DOUGLAS HANKS","is_mugshot":false,"text_alignment":"Default","summary":"","byline":"","kicker":""},"owner":"Miami","allow_comments":true,"image":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/latest-news/tb3bvd/picture224543030/alternates/LANDSCAPE_768/tsa%20creole.jpg"},{"id":"17724533","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/business/real-estate-news/article17724533.html","asset_type":"story","state":"published","title":"Retail tenants are seeking rent relief. Some landlords take a long view; others say no.","publication":"miamiherald","layout_option":"none","home":"/web/v1/sections/7277","home_section":{"name":"Real Estate News","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/business/real-estate-news/"},"modified_date":1585566012,"published_date":1585566000,"authors":[{"name":"Rebecca San Juan","email":"rsanjuan@miamiherald.com"}],"keywords":"Miami, real estate, commercial, retail, rent, coronavirus, landlord, dispute, tenant, restaurant","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["7277","7290","7264","93341","7292"],"credit":"","dateline":"","summary":"South Florida restaurant and retail owners are asking landlords for rent relief after they are either forced to close or see business drastically dip due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Some landlords say ‘no.’","content":"\n
With tourism at a standstill and nonessential businesses closed, local commercial tenants are looking for rent breaks as the coronavirus crisis heads into April.
\nThey’re finding mixed results.
\nAmong those retailers are Nick Sharp, co-owner of Threefold Cafe, with six locations, and Ricky Patel, president of The Spot Classic Barbershop, with 15 locations. Some landlords immediately agreed to some form of rent reliefe, they said, while others declined to negotiate.
\nBut as the weeks move on, many attorneys and landlords are advising abatements.
\nJason Kellogg, partner at the downtown Miami-based law firm Levine, Kellogg, Lehman, Schneider and Grossman, is advising clients including shopping center owners to renegotiate leases for the next two months.
\n\n Related content\n \n \n
\n“Everyone is going to feel pain right now,” Kellogg said. “It’s a matter of alleviating that pain.
\n“You can’t get blood from a stone,” he said.
\nBut most landlords will want to see restaurant and retail owners make an effort before agreeing to rent changes, said Javier Lopez, managing partner of the Coral Gables-based law firm Kozyak Tropin & Throckmorton. “Businesses have the responsibility to take proactive steps to meet contractual obligations.”
\nThat may include laying off employees to preserve the cash flow needed to pay rent, Lopez said.
\n\n Legally, landlords can demand tenants pay rent, Kellogg said. \n
\nThe exception would be tenants with \n force majeure lease clauses that protect tenants who cannot fulfill their obligations due to an unforeseen event such as an earthquake, hurricane or tornado — or pandemic. \n
\nTenants may also argue frustration of purpose, arguing that an unforeseen event undermined their intent for having entered into an agreement with their landlord, Lopez said.
\nBut whether COVID-19 is a legally considered a natural disaster, and whether it was an unforeseen event, may be disputed by some landlords and insurers, Lopez said — and may ultimately end up in litigation.
\n\n For now, lease practices vary by the property owner and by tenant. Some landlords are offering rent relief, no questions asked. Others are dealing with tenants on a case-by-case basis. Yet others are declining to offer any relief — at least for now. \n
\nTricera Capital, a Brickell-based commercial real estate property owner and management firm, wrote an email two weeks ago informing all of its 30 tenants that it would defer rent payments for April and allow them make it up the amount owed over the following six months, said co-founders Ben Mandell and Scott Sherman
\n“We are playing the long game,” Mandell said. “Tenants are the lifeblood of our assets.”
\nThe company is well capitalized, Sherman said, and took 50% to 60% financing for each of their commercial spaces. “Other property owners may need 75% financing,” Sherman said. “You may pay less up front but you have less breathing room.”
\n\n Related content\n \n \n \n
\nThe luxury-oriented Bal Harbour Shops are looking at hardships on a case-by-case basis, said Matthew Whitman Lazenby, president and chief executive officer of Whitman Family Development, which owns and manages the shops. “Our tenants know we stand with them through this and we are currently in discussions with our tenants to determine the best strategy for each moving forward,” he wrote via email.
\nRegardless of the landlord, tenants with a history of late payments may well be at a loss, said Lopez, of Kozyak Tropin & Throckmorton.
\n“I’ve seen some tenants that were hanging on by the skin of their teeth. They had already spoken about rent abatement and being short on rent since November. This may be the nail in the coffin but the coffin was already built. The landlord, in that case, would likely have a winning argument.”
\nSome landlords are refusing any relief.
\nThreefold’s Sharp said he reached out a month ago to his six landlords. Four said “’don’t worry about it,’” Sharp said. He is talking with them about lease extensions. Another landlord has yet to give a definite answer, wanting to first explore options.
\nBut one, Sharp said, “gave a hard ‘no.’”
\n“We never missed a rent payment,” Sharp said. “We wrote back saying vacancies are going to be everywhere and your best option would be to work with us.”
\nIn the interim, his cafes\n have become grocery stores.\n
\nThe Spot Barbershops closed its 15 South Florida locations more than two weeks ago, Patel said, to ensure safety.
\nHis landlords have given mixed responses. Three told him they would work with him, proposing a lease extension of 60 days and suggesting they take “one month at a time,” he said.
\nBut the majority, 12 landlords, told Patel he has to pay rent.
\n“It felt like a knife to the heart because we always pay on time,” Patel said.
\nHe is considering federal loans and incentives to pay bills, including insurance and utilities.
\nAnd he’s looking for ways to help his barbers, who live off commission. His barbers average $60,000 per year, or $5,000 per month. For now, they’re earning nothing.
\n ","kicker":"","text_alignment":"Left","href":"/web/v1/content/17724533","allow_ads":true,"allow_stn_player":true,"byline":"\n
\n","template_type":"","story_teaser":"Restaurant and retail owners asked for rent breaks after Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Giménez ordered all restaurants to close their indoor dining options. ","owner":"Miami","allow_comments":true,"image":""},{"id":"17724773","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article17724773.html","asset_type":"story","state":"published","title":"With hopes coronavirus outbreak will subside, Miami’s III Points fest moves to October","publication":"miamiherald","layout_option":"none","home":"/web/v1/sections/7292","home_section":{"name":"Miami-Dade County","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/"},"modified_date":1585427198,"published_date":1585422273,"authors":[{"name":"Joey Flechas","email":"jflechas@miamiherald.com"}],"keywords":"coronavirus, miami, covid-19, iii points, festival, concert, postpone, strokes, wu-tang","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["7292","93341","3985","3986","7226"],"credit":"","dateline":"","summary":"Organizers of Miami music and arts festival III Points announced they have rescheduled the two-day event for October 16-17. Some major headliners, such as The Strokes, Robyn and Wu-Tang Clan.","content":"\n
III Points music and arts festival has been rescheduled for Oct. 16-17, making the event the latest Miami gathering to be disrupted by the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
\nOrganizers of the event, originally scheduled for May 1-2, announced the postponement Saturday as the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases continued to rise in Florida and across the U.S. The festival’s founder, David Sinopoli, told the Miami Herald he was able to secure commitments from more than 95 percent of the artists to play the new October dates, including The Strokes, Wu-Tang Clan and Robyn. Very few couldn’t make the change, including one headliner, Disclosure. New artists to join the lineup include Rufus Du Sol, Artbat and Peaches.
\nSinopoli said he and his team worked for weeks to iron out schedules and work within their budget to organize a production later this year. The new dates give his team and fans something to look forward to.
\n“We wanted to put out something positive,” he said. “I just feel like, even if it isn’t until October, we’re trying to show our fans that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.”
\nHe acknowledged that the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic could alter \n III Points’ plans again. \n
\n“If we’re in a negative situation three to four months from now, and we’re looking at another pivot, I think that my team is ready for that,” Sinopoli said.
\nTicketholders who have paid in full are set. For those who are on the payment plan, payments will not resume until “it is ethically okay,” Sinopoli said, referencing the number of people who have lost their jobs during the pandemic.
\nIII Points has made a habit of pivoting to accommodate the festival’s growth or react to unexpected circumstances. This year’s change actually moves III Points onto a familiar part of the calendar.
\nThis year’s festival will be the seventh installment. For the first five years, the event was held in October, initially at various venues across the arts district and eventually landing at \n Mana Wynwood. In 2017, the potential impact of Hurricane Matthew forced some performers to cancel their sets, including LCD Soundsystem and Earl Sweatshirt. \n
\nFollowing a 16-month gap, III Points \n returned to Mana in February 2019. Headliners included Erykah Badu, Beach House and Herbie Hancock. This year, a February festival proved logistically challenging with Miami-Dade hosting Super Bowl 54 and a host of associated events and activities. \n
\n ","kicker":"","text_alignment":"Left","href":"/web/v1/content/17724773","allow_ads":true,"allow_stn_player":true,"byline":"\n
\n","template_type":"","story_teaser":"","owner":"Miami","allow_comments":true,"image":""},{"id":"17724932","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-springs/article17724932.html","asset_type":"story","state":"published","title":"Miami Springs newspaper suspends publication amid coronavirus economic collapse","publication":"miamiherald","layout_option":"none","home":"/web/v1/sections/7311","home_section":{"name":"River Cities","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-springs/"},"modified_date":1585355171,"published_date":1585353047,"authors":[{"name":"Theo Karanstalis ","email":""}],"keywords":"River City Gazette, suspends, publication, weekly, newspaper, Tom Curtis, Miami Springs, Miami Dolphins ","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["7311","7264","93341","3986","7287"],"credit":"Special to the Miami Herald ","dateline":"","summary":"River Cities Gazette Publisher Tom Curtis, part of the undefeated 1972 Miami Dolphins Super Bowl team, temporarily suspended publication due to the coronavirus. The weekly served the Miami Springs area.","content":"\n
The River Cities Gazette announced Thursday that it has temporarily suspended publication of its newspaper due to COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
\nA longtime Miami Herald news partner, the Gazette has served the communities of Miami Springs, Virginia Gardens and Medley for about 40 years.
\n“With all the business closings, the economics make it impossible to continue with the smaller circulation weekly issues,” said Gazette publisher Tom Curtis, who was part of the undefeated 1972 Miami Dolphins Super Bowl team.
\nCurtis hopes to publish another Gazette issue on April 23.
\n“We will resume our regular publication schedule when the businesses reopen and the war against the coronavirus has been won,” Curtis said.
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","template_type":"","story_teaser":"","owner":"Miami","allow_comments":true,"image":""},{"id":"17724935","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-beach/article17724935.html","asset_type":"story","state":"published","title":"As Miami Beach clinic rolls out $125 coronavirus tests, DeSantis calls out price gouging","publication":"miamiherald","layout_option":"none","home":"/web/v1/sections/7307","home_section":{"name":"Miami Beach","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-beach/"},"modified_date":1585354315,"published_date":1585352882,"authors":[{"name":"Martin Vassolo","email":"mvassolo@miamiherald.com"}],"keywords":"drive thru, coronavirus, test, miami beach, price gouging, price, desantis, florida, insurance, hialeah","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["7307","93341","3986","7292","7287"],"credit":"","dateline":"","summary":"Miami Beach’s first drive-thru coronavirus testing center plans to charge the uninsured up to $125 for COVID-19 tests. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis directed the state to investigate ‘price gouging’ at a Hialeah center.","content":"\n
Hours after the city of Miami Beach announced its first drive-thru coronavirus testing center, which will charge up to $125 per test for the uninsured, Gov. Ron DeSantis called for a “price gouging” investigation into a Hialeah testing center charging $25 more.
\nThe Miami Beach testing center, which will be operated by the private clinic MedRite Urgent Care, is scheduled to begin offering tests on Wednesday at the 4621 Collins Ave. municipal parking lot.
\nBut the announced investigation into a similar operation less than 20 miles west may bring about a change of plan.
\n“Whatever the law requires, we’ll have to be compliant,” said Mayor Dan Gelber. “Nobody anticipates supporting illicit tests.”
\nThe Miami Beach testing center will charge up to $125 per test for those without insurance, according to a marketing firm representing MedRite. The firm, HXECUTE, “pivoted to support launching COVID-19 testing sites” after doing work at Art Basel.
\nThere has been no mention of free testing at the Miami Beach center, despite a \n federal law passed March 18 that offers reimbursement to healthcare providers that offer free testing to the uninsured. Private insurance companies have \n generally waived testing fees during the national emergency. \n
\n“MedRite will allocate a percentage of the daily tests at reduced pricing in an effort to accommodate as many patients as possible,” said Matt McKenna, deputy adviser for HXECUTE.
\nOther drive-thru testing sites in South Florida operated by the state emergency management office and regional hospitals offer COVID-19 testing for free. Medicare is paying between \n $36 to $51 for the test, according to the New York Times.\n
\nTesting at the Miami Beach drive-thru will be conducted by appointment only and will be available only to those who have been pre-approved by a doctor. That includes people with symptoms of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, or those who have been in recent contact with someone who tested positive for the disease or who traveled to areas where the spread is more concentrated.
\nDuring a press conference Friday afternoon, DeSantis directed Attorney General Ashley Moody to investigate the \n $150 coronavirus tests being sold at a Hialeah testing site. While DeSantis did not name the hospital, Larkin Community Hospital opened a drive-thru testing site in Hialeah on March 20 and charges $150 per test. \n
\n\n “Our Miami Beach testing center is an extension of our existing Urgent Care facility in Miami Beach,” MedRite said in a statement. “We certainly are not breaking any laws but offering this valuable service to the Miami Beach community. We will certainly comply with any state or federal mandates regarding fees for testing.”\n
\nThe company, which runs a drive-thru testing site in New York, has not yet had its special events permit finalized with the city of Miami Beach, a city spokeswoman said. \n \n
\nMiami Beach Commissioner Steven Meiner, who has pushed for two weeks to get a drive-thru testing center in Miami Beach, said he was “not involved in these discussions” and directed a reporter to contact the city administration or MedRite for further comment.
\nCommissioner David Richardson said he informed the city administration of the state’s announced price-gouging investigation. He said no one should be turned away because they can’t afford the price of a test.
\n“From our first discussions about a testing site in Miami Beach, I raised questions about how and who would pay for the service,” he said. “Initially, the provider was going to perform tests for those symptomatic individuals either insured or who have the ability to pay $125 per test. I have insisted that any program must be available to all, including those who are unable to pay for the service.”
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\n","template_type":"","story_teaser":"","owner":"Miami","allow_comments":true,"image":""},{"id":"17724941","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article17724941.html","asset_type":"story","state":"published","title":"New $2 trillion coronavirus relief programs could be hard to access in coming days","publication":"miamiherald","layout_option":"none","home":"/web/v1/sections/93341","home_section":{"name":"Coronavirus","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/"},"modified_date":1585352761,"published_date":1585347981,"authors":[{"name":"Alex Daugherty","email":"adaugherty@mcclatchydc.com"}],"keywords":"coronavirus, unemployment insurance, covid-19, laid off, small business administration, government assistance, small business loans, marco rubio, donna shalala, IRS","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["93341","3986","7292","7283","7278"],"credit":"","dateline":"WASHINGTON","summary":"Access to expanded unemployment benefits and small business loans that don’t have to be paid back in response to coronavirus could be a challenge for federal, state and local governments.","content":"\n
A $367 billion \n plan by Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio to help small businesses decimated by the coronavirus won universal praise in Congress as part of a $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill that \n became law on Friday, including from liberals like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. \n
\nBut Rubio acknowledged that passing a bill is easy compared to getting the money into the hands of small business owners as fast as possible. \n \n
\n \n
“\n We’re going to need a lot of help,” Rubio said. “I just talked to Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber on how we can use local governments as a conduit to expedite and make this process easier.” \n
\nAn exact date for the start of the small business program has not been officially announced, though Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he wants it up and running by the end of next week.
\nThe concerns about how the process will work aren’t limited to Rubio’s small business plan. An expansion of unemployment insurance by $600 per week for four months in addition to state-issued benefits doesn’t matter much if laid-off workers can’t access the state’s unemployment website, which \n happened repeatedly in Florida this week. \n
\nThe Internal Revenue Service plans to dole out individual checks to millions of Americans in the coming weeks, and Mnuchin wants the big-ticket items in the bill to be implemented quickly.
\nBut such a rapid expansion of government programs — combined with an unprecedented demand for benefits after unemployment claims skyrocketed around the country this week — is a recipe for bureaucratic nightmare. The website for people to \n enroll in Obamacare crashed after it went live in 2013 and it took weeks for the technical issues to be resolved. \n
\nLaid-off workers and small businesses trying to cover expenses don’t have weeks to wait.
\n“What I’m concerned about is getting organized, that is tougher than voting on this bill,” said Miami Democratic Rep. Donna Shalala, who served as Secretary of Health and Human Services during the Clinton administration. “They’ve got to figure out a way to do this quickly. That takes teams of people within the [federal] agencies, and they should have been doing this two and three weeks ago.”
\nShalala said she’s met with officials from various federal agencies responsible for implementing the coronavirus relief package that was signed into law by President Donald Trump on Friday, and she’s hopeful that administration officials are prepared to deal with a rush of visitors to websites and applications for unemployment insurance. She also noted that most of the big-ticket items in the package that must be implemented quickly use existing infrastructure instead of building new websites and applications from the ground up.
\nFor example, the IRS is responsible for sending out checks to Americans who qualify, the loans to small businesses that don’t have to be paid back use an application process through the Small Business Administration that already exists and states have their own websites for applying for unemployment insurance.
\nBut there are already signs that the government’s response could be troubled.
\nBroward Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said Thursday the Small Business Administration’s website was already crashing due to high demand, and laid-off workers in states like \n Florida, Michigan, Washington and Ohio were cut off from phone systems after hours of being on hold and being unable to access websites to apply for unemployment insurance. \n
\n“\n I hope the Trump administration beefs up the capacity of what the SBA website can handle,” Wasserman Schultz said. \n
\nRubio said the small business loan program is purposely designed to be as efficient as possible for applicants, the federal government and financial institutions like banks and credit unions who process the loan paperwork.
\n\n “They can turn the loan around in 36 hours with no credit check. It’s a pretty straightforward process,” Rubio said. “It’s important because we want to preserve their small businesses and their payrolls as much as possible.” \n
\nBut he acknowledged that existing financial institutions may not work well during government-mandated social distancing measures that have forced many bank employees to work from home and resulted in physical branches reducing or eliminating their hours of operation. And relying on electronic loan applications only works as long as the websites are able to handle demand.
\n“Most states do not have the infrastructure to handle the volume they’re facing,” Rubio said.
\nRubio’s office is working with the SBA, the Treasury Department, small business organizations and lenders to ensure the bill is implemented quickly and that relief to small businesses happens as soon as possible. Rubio tweeted Friday morning he’s working on “suggestions for implementing regulations.”
\nMiami Democratic Rep. Frederica Wilson said her office is overwhelmed with calls from small business owners and laid-off workers. She said the federal government will need to hire more people to ensure that the benefits can be given out quickly. But hiring and training workers takes time.
\n\n “I think that we’re going to have to create a robust hiring process. We’ve got to hire more people and this is a good time to hire because so many people lost their jobs,” Wilson said. “Tomorrow or Monday, we will see openings for people with different technical skills to join that organization, whether in person or working from home, to mitigate that situation.” \n
\nMost members of Congress from Miami, including Shalala, Wilson and Debbie Mucarsel-Powell are already announcing virtual events for constituents who need help applying for state and federal assistance.
\n“The states do not have the capacity for the thousands of employees that are going to be applying,” Shalala said. “It’s going to take a little bit of patience until they have that capacity. Many of our elected leaders are going to have to give people very clear information about how and where they can apply. \n We have a lot of work to do in terms of getting accurate information. If they call unemployment or the [Small Business Administration], their calls haven’t been answered.” \n
\n ","kicker":"","text_alignment":"Left","href":"/web/v1/content/17724941","allow_ads":true,"allow_stn_player":true,"byline":"\n
\n","template_type":"","story_teaser":"","owner":"Miami","allow_comments":true,"image":""},{"id":"17724968","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article17724968.html","asset_type":"story","state":"published","title":"4 Broward Sheriff’s Office employees have COVID-19 and 100 others self-isolated, BSO says","publication":"miamiherald","layout_option":"none","home":"/web/v1/sections/93341","home_section":{"name":"Coronavirus","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/"},"modified_date":1585348478,"published_date":1585333431,"authors":[{"name":"Charles Rabin","email":"crabin@miamiherald.com"}],"keywords":"coronavirus, COVID-19, Broward Sheriff's Office, virus, Miami-Dade Police Department, Hialeah, Miami police, Brazil","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["93341","7290","7295","7319","7302","3986","7292","7287"],"credit":"","dateline":"","summary":"The Broward Sheriff’s Office said Friday that the quickly-spreading coronavirus has affected 207 employees, with four of them testing positive for the virus. The others are either in self-isolation or have already returned to work.","content":"\n
Four employees at the Broward Sheriff’s Office have tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the quickly spreading coronavirus. And, 103 other workers at the agency are in self-isolation as they either await a test result or because they may have come in contact with the virus, BSO said Friday.
\nThe announcement by the agency, which has close to 2,800 sworn officers and 5,400 employees overall, adds to the growing list of first responders in South Florida who have been affected by the disease. BSO did not say if the workers infected were sworn or civilian personnel.
\n“There are 107 cases in various degrees, still,” said BSO spokeswoman Miranda Grossman.
\nGrossman said that 100 BSO employees who had isolated have already returned to work.
\nAlso Friday, Coral Gables confirmed that two members of its \n almost 200-person sworn police department who had been quarantined had tested positive for the virus. \n
\nOn Thursday, Miami police, an agency of 1,300 sworn officers in which dozens have self-isolated the past two weeks, said its first two officers who tested positive for the disease were home recovering. Most of the Miami cops who went into self-isolation have already returned to work.
\nThe city’s \n entire motorcycle squad was quarantined two weeks ago after learning that several people in a diplomatic corps from Brazil that the officers had escorted through South Florida, had tested positive.\n
\nAlso confirmed to have contracted the virus were a \n Hialeah Police Department detective and one police officer with the Miami-Dade County Police Department, the largest in the southeastern U.S., with 3,000 sworn personnel and over 5,000 employees. Spokesman Alvaro Zabaleta said 19 Miami-Dade cops are home after being self-quarantined. He said most of them took the precaution after returning from travel.\n
\n ","kicker":"","text_alignment":"Left","href":"/web/v1/content/17724968","allow_ads":true,"allow_stn_player":true,"byline":"\n
\n","template_type":"","story_teaser":"","owner":"Miami","allow_comments":true,"image":""},{"id":"17725034","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/doral/article17725034.html","asset_type":"story","state":"published","title":"Doral councilwoman ends self-isolation after testing negative for coronavirus","publication":"miamiherald","layout_option":"none","home":"/web/v1/sections/7298","home_section":{"name":"Doral","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/doral/"},"modified_date":1585342919,"published_date":1585341877,"authors":[{"name":"Joey Flechas","email":"jflechas@miamiherald.com"}],"keywords":"coronavirus, covid-19, miami, doral, claudia mariaca, isolation","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["7298","93341","7285","3986","7292"],"credit":"","dateline":"","summary":"Claudia Mariaca tested negative for the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. She self-isolated for two weeks after meeting Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. Some members of his staff have tested positive.","content":"\n
Doral Councilwoman Claudia Mariaca has tested negative for COVID-19, the city announced on Friday, following a two-week self-isolation after she had contact with officials from Brazil who visited South Florida in early March.
\nMariaca briefly had contact with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who said he tested negative on March 17. Members of Bolsonaro’s staff, some of whom joined the president on his trip to South Florida, have tested positive. Less than a week after being in the vicinity of Bolsonaro and his delegation, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez \n tested positive for the virus. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, who also attended the event, tested negative and self-isolated for 14 days.\n
\nMariaca, who only briefly had contact with Bolsonaro, had no contact with the public during the last 14 days, according to a city news release. The Florida Department of Health decided to test Mariaca a few days ago as a precaution.
\n“Throughout this time, neither her nor any of her family members experienced any symptoms of the virus,” the release reads.
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\n","template_type":"","story_teaser":"","owner":"Miami","allow_comments":true,"image":""},{"id":"17725247","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article17725247.html","asset_type":"story","state":"published","title":"Florida coronavirus cases rise dramatically as Broward, Miami-Dade orders residents to stay home","publication":"miamiherald","layout_option":"none","home":"/web/v1/sections/93341","home_section":{"name":"Coronavirus","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/"},"modified_date":1585316487,"published_date":1585266578,"authors":[{"name":"Aaron Leibowitz","email":"aleibowitz@miamiherald.com"},{"name":"Joey Flechas","email":"jflechas@miamiherald.com"},{"name":"David Ovalle","email":"dovalle@miamiherald.com"}],"keywords":"coronavirus, Thursday, numbers, diagnosed, Florida, Department of Health, deaths, COVID-19, increase, statistics","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["93341","7290","3986","7292","7287"],"credit":"","dateline":"","summary":"As Broward County issued a shelter-at-home order and Miami prepared to enforce a 10 p.m. curfew, the number of Floridians diagnosed with COVID-19 increased dramatically Thursday night to 2,484, with 29 deaths.","content":"\n
Diagnosed coronavirus cases in South Florida jumped dramatically Thursday night as Broward and Miami-Dade\n counties ordered residents to stay at home and Miami prepared to enforce a new 10 p.m. curfew, all to try and curb the devastating outbreak that has killed more than \n 20,000 across the globe and paralyzed the world’s economy.\n
\nOverall, as testing has ramped up this week, 2,484 people in Florida had been diagnosed with the highly contagious illness as of 6 p.m. Thursday, the Florida Department of Health announced. That’s nearly a 26 percent increase from the night before, when there were 1,977 diagnosed cases.
\nIn Miami-Dade, there are now 654 diagnosed cases, in Broward, 505.
\nThe infected include \n two Miami police officers, who have been sent home and are recovering in isolation. “Both officers are in good spirits and are currently experiencing only mild effects from the virus,” Miami Police Chief Jorge Colina said in a press release Thursday afternoon.\n
\nThe number of deaths rose too, with Florida recording 29 deaths from COVID-19, up from 23 deaths the night before.
\nBroward County still lists three COVID-19 deaths, according to the state health department. The numbers do not reflect the death of a Miramar doctor, \n Alex Hsu, 67, who is the first medical professional to die in South Florida from complications of the virus.\n
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\nAcross the globe, countries were struggling to contain the virus — and the economic disaster caused by the worldwide shutdown of travel and commerce.
\nThe U.S. Department of Labor announced a staggering \n 3.3 million people filed for unemployment claims last week, the most ever in one week. World leaders \n vowed to inject $5 trillion into the global economy. In Florida, \n 74,021 people filed claims. U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi predicted that lawmakers on Friday would pass a sweeping $2.2 trillion relief package to keep the economy afloat.\n
\nIn Florida, governments continued measures to try to limit people from spreading the virus to each other and ease the press on overwhelmed hospitals treating the most severely affected patients.
\nOn Thursday, Broward County issued an emergency shelter-in-place order in the face of pressure from city officials, urging all residents countywide to stay indoors except to conduct “essential” business. The \n Emergency Order will begin at 12:01 a.m. on Friday and encompass all of Broward County.\n
\n“The general feeling among the municipalities is it’s really not effective if you’re just gonna do it municipality by municipality. You have to do it as a county,” Joseph Napoli, the city manager for Cooper City in Broward, told the Miami Herald. “If it’s countywide, it’s much easier to educate people.”
\nWhile the county is advising everyone to stay inside, those who work at “essential” businesses can leave their homes to go to work.
\n“Essential businesses” include grocery stores and farmers’ markets, gas stations and marine fueling stations, car dealerships, hardware stores, contractors, first responders, laundromats and restaurants. Also, outdoor exercising is still allowed if it follows the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s social distancing guidelines.
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\nHours later, Miami-Dade County issued an order with similar language and the same effect: urging people to remain at home as much as possible without new rules governing when they could go outside.
\nThe difference between the two counties’ orders was largely semantic. Broward County Administrator Bertha Henry called her measure the “Shelter-in-Place: Safer at Home Policy,” while Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez used the term “Safer at Home.”
\nGimenez criticized use of “shelter-in-place” orders for the coronavirus emergency, saying the term should be reserved when an active shooter, tornado or some other threat doesn’t allow people to go outside under any circumstances.
\nThe City of Miami has issued a shelter-in-place order. On Friday night, the city will be going a step further by\n enforcing a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew.\n
\nMiami city commissioners voted to enact the curfew during a video conference meeting on Wednesday night.
\nThe curfew will give the Miami police department the power to stop, question and arrest anyone out in public after 10 p.m. There will be three general exceptions for people who are traveling to or from work, seeking medical services or walking their dogs within 250 feet of their homes.
\n“If there’s a curfew, we’re going to enforce it,” Chief Colina said.
\nIn other developments on Thursday:
\n\n ▪ Two poll workers who spent Florida’s primary day in precincts in the city of Hollywood have \n tested positive for coronavirus, the Broward Supervisor of Elections said Thursday.\n
\nAccording to a press release, Supervisor Pete Antonacci has learned the workers tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by novel coronavirus, after working March 17 at precincts at the Martin Luther King Community Center and the David Park Community Center, both in the city of Hollywood.
\nOne of the workers also worked at an early voting center in Weston, according to the press release. Early voting ended March 15.
\n\n ▪ Thirteen crew members in need of life-critical care from two cruise ships \n were evacuated to local hospitals in Miami Thursday with COVID-19 symptoms.\n
\nThe ships — Costa Magica and Costa Favolosa — lingered three miles offshore as lifeboats transported sick people to the U.S. Coast Guard station at Port Miami. Wearing hazmat suits, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue workers helped the people off lifeboats and into ambulances that took them to local hospitals.
\n\n ▪ Florida Department of Revenue Executive Director Jim Zingale issued an emergency order Thursday that extends the usual real estate property tax deadline from March 31 to April 15. Property taxes paid on railroad, railroad terminal, private car and freight line and equipment company property, usually due April 1, are also due on April 15.\n
\n\n ▪ Broward Democratic Rep. Ted Deutch said Thursday he has been \n under self-quarantine since last weekend after his son returned home from Spain and lost his sense of taste and smell, which is a symptom of COVID-19.\n
\n“He came back from Spain, and this weekend will be 14 days,” Deutch said Thursday during a virtual press conference with members of Congress. “He had what we thought might be a symptom, the loss of taste and smell. We’ve treated him as if he has had it, but fortunately that’s the only symptom.”
\n\n ▪ The U.S. Navy announced that a Key West sailor was among 35 sailors and civilian personnel who have tested positive for COVID-19.\n
\n“People in close contact with those who tested positive were quarantined and are being monitored,” the Navy said in a press release. “Military health professionals are continuing to determine if others were possibly exposed, and will take additional precautionary measures as necessary.”
\n\n Miami Herald staff writers Douglas Hanks, David J. Neal and Devoun Cetoute contributed to this report.\n
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