\" rel=\"Follow\" target=\"_self\">Yo-Yo Ma has been tweeting using the hashtag #SongsOfComfort and dedicated a performance from Bach’s Cello Suite No. 3 to healthcare workers. \n \n
\n \n \n \n
\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
— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) March 14, 2020 \" rel=\"Follow\" target=\"_self\">Benanti tweeted. “Sending all my love and black market toilet paper.”\n
\n
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.
\n
\n \n \n \n
\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
\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
\n
No 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
Museums 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
The 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.
Suffering 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.
\n
\n \n \n \n \n
\n
Given 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.
\n
The 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.
“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.”
\n
Turkle, 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.
\n
People 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
\n
\n \n \n \n
\n
As 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
\n
Virtual routines
\n
The 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?
\n
Jobs 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.
\n
As 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
“Coronavirus could hasten the replacement of humans by computers,” Harvey said.
\n
The 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?
\n
Intractable 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
\n
Coronavirus, 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.”
\n
Free from quarantine, blinking in the sun, humans might just choose to unplug, and trade virtual life for the real thing.
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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
\n
Raúl 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.”
\n
Other 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.
\n
All 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
\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,"allow_index":false,"allow_follow":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,"topic_tags":[],"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,"allow_index":true,"allow_follow":true,"meta_title":"South Florida addicts struggle as coronavirus upends recovery","originating_url":"https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article241429136.html","meta_description":"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.","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.
\n
Finally, 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.
\n
Then, the coronavirus upended his recovery.
\n
Derrick’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.”
\n
But 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
\n
Getting 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.
\n
Substance-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.
\n
Doctors 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.
\n
Fewer treatment orders
\n
And 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.
Substance 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
In 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.
\n
Thriving 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.
\n
Thriving 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 Insurance concerns\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
\n
Medicaid 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.
\n
Those 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
\n
\n \n \n \n \n
\n
For now, rehab facilities — of which there are hundreds in Florida — are taking it day by day.
\n
Banyan 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
\n
South 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.
\n
Virtual treatments
\n
Outside of treatment centers, recovering addicts have turned to virtual platforms.
\n
Mark, 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.
\n
Then, 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.”
\n
Kevin Sullivan knows how a global crisis can wreck sobriety.
\n
The 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.
\n
Sullivan, 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.”
\n
Substance 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.”
\n
Fawcett 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.
User 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.
\n
This 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
\n
On 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.
\n
One 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.”
\n
Said Pomerance: “Solitude is a killer for us. People are reaching out during such a weird disjointed time. People are thirsting for that connection.”
\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,"allow_index":false,"allow_follow":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,"topic_tags":[],"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,"allow_index":true,"allow_follow":true,"meta_title":"Miami residents bang pots, party, cheer during coronavirus curfew","originating_url":"https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article241582766.html","meta_description":"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.","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
\n
On 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.
\n
On 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.
\n
As 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.
\n
Adrian 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.
\n
After 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.
\n
Near Brickell World Plaza, Twitter user Nicole, @xoxonicolee_, recordered residents dancing and cheering from nearby apartments as music carried over Brickell Avenue.
\n
\n \n \n \n
\n
Over 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.
\n
\n \n \n \n
\n
Tania Leets also caught video from her balcony of Brickell residents clapping for caregivers.
\n
\n \n \n \n
\n
This 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
\n
Miami 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
\n","template_type":"","story_teaser":"","owner":"Miami","allow_comments":true,"topic_tags":[],"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,"allow_index":true,"allow_follow":true,"meta_title":"Three TSA employees at MIA test positive for COVID-19","originating_url":"https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article241608476.html","meta_description":"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.","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.
\n
The 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.
\n
MIA 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.“
\n
According 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","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,"allow_index":false,"allow_follow":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,"topic_tags":[],"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,"allow_index":true,"allow_follow":true,"meta_title":"Miami restaurant and retail owners ask for rent relief","originating_url":"https://www.miamiherald.com/news/business/real-estate-news/article241531996.html","meta_description":"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.’","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.
\n
They’re finding mixed results.
\n
Among 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.
\n
But as the weeks move on, many attorneys and landlords are advising abatements.
\n
Jason 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.
“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.
\n
But 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.”
\n
That may include laying off employees to preserve the cash flow needed to pay rent, Lopez said.
The 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
\n
Tenants 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.
\n
But 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
\n
Tricera 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.”
\n
The 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.”
The 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.
\n
Regardless 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.”
\n
Some landlords are refusing any relief.
\n
Threefold’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.
\n
But 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.”
The Spot Barbershops closed its 15 South Florida locations more than two weeks ago, Patel said, to ensure safety.
\n
His 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.
\n
But 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.
\n
He is considering federal loans and incentives to pay bills, including insurance and utilities.
\n
And 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","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,"topic_tags":[],"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,"allow_index":true,"allow_follow":true,"meta_title":"As COVID-19 spreads, III Points festival moved to October","originating_url":"https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article241585926.html","meta_description":"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.","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.
\n
Organizers 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.
\n
Sinopoli 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.”
\n
He 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.
\n
Ticketholders 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.
\n
III 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.
\n
This 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
\n
Following 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","template_type":"","story_teaser":"","owner":"Miami","allow_comments":true,"topic_tags":[],"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,"allow_index":true,"allow_follow":true,"meta_title":"River Cities Gazette suspends newspaper in Miami Springs ","originating_url":"https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-springs/article241560796.html","meta_description":"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.","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.
\n
A 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.
\n
Curtis 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.
","template_type":"","story_teaser":"","owner":"Miami","allow_comments":true,"topic_tags":[],"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,"allow_index":true,"allow_follow":true,"meta_title":"Miami Beach clinic to charge $125 for coronavirus test","originating_url":"https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-beach/article241557346.html","meta_description":"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.","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.
\n
The 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.
\n
But 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.”
\n
The 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.
\n
There 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.
\n
Other 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
\n
Testing 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.
\n
During 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
\n
The 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
\n
Miami 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.
\n
Commissioner 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.”
\n","template_type":"","story_teaser":"","owner":"Miami","allow_comments":true,"topic_tags":[],"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,"allow_index":true,"allow_follow":true,"meta_title":"Coronavirus relief programs could be backlogged with demand","originating_url":"https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article241563636.html","meta_description":"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.","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
\n
But 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
“\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
\n
An 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.
\n
The 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
\n
The 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.
\n
But 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
\n
Laid-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.”
\n
Shalala 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.
\n
For 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.
\n
But there are already signs that the government’s response could be troubled.
\n
Broward 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
\n
Rubio 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
\n
But 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.
\n
Rubio’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.”
\n
Miami 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
\n
Most 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","template_type":"","story_teaser":"","owner":"Miami","allow_comments":true,"topic_tags":[],"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,"allow_index":true,"allow_follow":true,"meta_title":"Four BSO employees test positive for coronavirus","originating_url":"https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article241560181.html","meta_description":"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.","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.
\n
The 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.
\n
Grossman said that 100 BSO employees who had isolated have already returned to work.
\n
Also 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
\n
On 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.
\n
The 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
\n
Also 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","template_type":"","story_teaser":"","owner":"Miami","allow_comments":true,"topic_tags":[],"image":""},{"id":"17725031","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article17725031.html","asset_type":"story","state":"published","title":"Nearly 160,000 meals delivered to homebound seniors in Miami through new county initiative","publication":"miamiherald","layout_option":"none","home":"/web/v1/sections/93341","home_section":{"name":"Coronavirus","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/"},"modified_date":1585343153,"allow_index":true,"allow_follow":true,"meta_title":"Miami-Dade expands Meals on Wheels program because of coronavirus","originating_url":"https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article241424166.html","meta_description":"To help seniors stuck home because of the coronavirus pandemic, Miami-Dade expanded Meals on Wheels and launched a new meal delivery service, in partnership with DeliverLean. It already served nearly 160,000 meals.","published_date":1585236997,"authors":[{"name":"Lautaro Grinspan","email":"lgrinspan@miamiherald.com"}],"keywords":"coronavirus, covid, meals on wheels, senior, elderly, meal delivery, social distancing, nutrition","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["93341","7273","3986","7292"],"credit":"","dateline":"","summary":"To help seniors stuck home because of the coronavirus pandemic, Miami-Dade expanded Meals on Wheels and launched a new meal delivery service, in partnership with DeliverLean. It already served nearly 160,000 meals.","content":"\n
On Wednesday, as\n orders to shelter at home went into effect in the city of Miami, Yuri Kouzenkov was out and about.\n
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Outfitted in gloves, a mask, and a plastic gown, Kouzenkov was busy delivering batches of meals to the homes of seniors, a task that put him on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has inflicted the brunt of its harm on the elderly.
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“It feels amazing to be part of a ... process that’s helping out the community and the people that are in the greatest need today,” said Kouzenkov, who works for DeliverLean, a contractor hired last week by the county to help feed newly home-bound seniors at no cost to them.
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Kouzenkov was just one among dozens of drivers mobilized this week, as a network of local governments, nonprofits, and private companies ramped up food-delivery efforts across Miami-Dade’s senior communities.
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The goal is twofold: As county officials explain, meal deliveries help meet the nutritional needs of older residents at a time of general upheaval, all while making it easier for them to forgo trips to public spaces and practice social distancing.
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Key to the county’s endeavor is a new emergency meal program that residents 60 and over can sign up for by \n dialing 311, the county’s government help line. \n
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The new meal program — which was made available after Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez declared \n a state of emergency on March 11 — gives residents free access to recurring home deliveries of batches of 10 fresh, vacuum-sealed meals.\n
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As of Friday, 159,820 meals have been delivered to over 15,000 residents, a number that keeps growing.
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“Just [on Monday], we had 1,285 residents in the county getting their doors knocked on with 10 days’ worth of meals,” said Annika Holder, assistant director of \n Miami-Dade’s Community Action and Human Services Department, the largest social services provider in the county. “That’s a lot of door knocks.” \n
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To take on the door-knocking, and the actual preparation of the meals, the county enlisted DeliverLean, a Hollywood-based company that sells prepared meals across South Florida.
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DeliverLean prepares the food — offering tailored options that include vegan, kosher, and diabetic-friendly, low-sodium meal plans — and dispatches 150 drivers across the county every day to make the deliveries.
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At a time when \n unemployment claims have spiked across South Florida and the rest of the country, DeliverLean has been expanding its staff to keep up with new orders from the county, often hiring workers who recently lost jobs in the region’s hard-hit hospitality industry. \n
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“A lot of local restaurants, hotels, stadiums, airports have been actively sending us their employees to hire,” said CEO Scott Harris, “We have hired over 150 people in the last week to meet the demand.”
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The 311 emergency meal program DeliverLean helps operate serves folks who weren’t previously enrolled in the county’s already existing food assistance programs for seniors.
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“These individuals either live alone or they live with someone who’s also in their age range. They’ve expressed either that they have underlying health challenges, they are scared to go out, or they are living in areas where they may have limited access to food,” said Holder. “In some cases, their support system may not have been put in place. So we’re seeing a variety of things coming up.”
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“Our main goal here is to make sure that the nutritional health of our elderly residents in Miami-Dade county is not impacted by this crisis. That’s our number one underlying goal,” she added.
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There was no immediate estimate on how much Miami-Dade has spent and will continue to spend on this new initiative.
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“Every day the amount of meals is growing exponentially,” said Harris.
Before the coronavirus outbreak, the county’s Community Action and Human Services Department already provided free meals for seniors aged 60 and over through \n two different programs. \n
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Meals on Wheels delivered batches of seven frozen meals once a week to about 500 homebound seniors. For those who \n weren’t homebound, there existed the option to get a free hot meal once a day at one of 21 senior centers operated by the county, a program that about 1,600 people were enrolled in. \n
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Though Meals on Wheels currently “goes on uninterrupted” and unchanged, according to Holder, Mayor Carlos Gimenez’s decision to close down senior centers on March 16 meant the department had to adjust the way it served able-bodied folks who previously visited centers’ cafeterias to get their free daily meal.
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The result was an expansion of the county’s meal-delivery operations.
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Starting on the 16th, the county delivered a boxed lunch every day for a week to seniors who previously ate at senior centers. This week, those seniors have transitioned into Meals on Wheels, receiving weekly deliveries of seven-day batches of frozen meals, or into the 311 meal delivery program.
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To tick through the expanded delivery list, the county is relying on a fleet of five, 16-foot-long refrigerated vehicles. Many have had to take turns behind the wheel.
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“We had our staff, everybody in our department was all-hands-on-deck delivering meals, no matter whether they are social workers, administrators. Everybody is on board,” said Lucia Davis-Raiford, director of Miami-Dade’s Community Action and Human Services Department. “It all just made us realize how flexible and creative you have to be in these circumstances.”
Besides the 21 county-run senior centers, over 50 additional centers — operated by local municipalities or nonprofits and collectively serving around 10,000 seniors — have also shuttered, and are also transitioning to meal delivery services.
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Holder says the county is willing and ready to shore up those centers’ delivery operations when needs arise.
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“For example, one organization said, ‘We have two drivers that are sick. Could we get two drivers from the county?’ We said, ‘Not only will we give you two drivers, we will also give you our own refrigerated vehicle until you get your vehicle that may have been compromised dealt with.’”
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SANITATION PROCEDURES
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Meal delivery to the county’s elderly residents has always been, as Davis-Raiford explains, “a very personal service to people.”
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But although drivers in earlier times might have been able to place meals directly on residents’ kitchen counters, COVID-19 mandates that new sanitation and social distancing guidelines be followed every time a delivery is made.
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Drivers now wear personal protective equipment in the form of masks and gloves (DeliverLean’s drivers are similarly outfitted).
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To receive the deliveries, some residents are placing a chair on their porch. County drivers either drop the meals off on the chair or, if there isn’t one, on a stand that they carry around in their vehicles. They then ring the bell, step back, and let residents collect the meals, visually acknowledging that the food has been received instead of having folks sign for them, which had been the case before.
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For those new to meal delivery — especially for those who’ve signed up through the new 311 emergency program — the county makes sure to explain in detail how drop-offs take place.
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“Especially now that we are delivering meals to individuals who are not connected to our program who may not know our staff and may not be connected with DeliverLean, we are also communicating with them so they know not to be freaked out if someone shows up at your doorstep wearing a mask,” said Holder. “We’re giving them a heads-up that this is happening.”
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During his rounds in downtown Miami on Wednesday, Kouzenkov’s full-body protective gear occasionally drew quizzical glances from folks passing by.
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“When people see me out on the street or in apartment buildings delivering bags of meals they ask me if I’m delivering medicine,” he said. “And I say, no this is food. But I feel … it’s just as important as medicine.”
Davis-Raiford says a process is being developed to make meal deliveries become opportunities to not just drop off food, but also conduct wellness checks as the new normal imposed by COVID-19 sets in.
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“I think it’s very predictable that this crisis is going to be fairly impacting, especially when you isolate people who can’t get around,” she said. “What we want is to have the ability to connect in some way, and not just provide meals.”
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The county’s Community Action and Human Services Department is also making broader use of “telephone reassurance,” multiplying calls to vulnerable seniors to conduct more informal check-ins.
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“We have more people picking up the phone now and calling our clients and just asking, ‘How is your day?’ ” Holder said.
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It’s a behavior she believes everyone can model inside their own communities.
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“I’m encouraging everyone if you have a neighbor who is a senior or elderly, check in on that person,” she said. “You may not be able to knock on their door and go into their apartments, but we do encourage you to find a way to be responsible for each other.”
\n","template_type":"","story_teaser":"","owner":"Miami","allow_comments":true,"topic_tags":[],"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,"allow_index":true,"allow_follow":true,"meta_title":"Doral politician ends isolation, tests negative for COVID-19","originating_url":"https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/doral/article241567841.html","meta_description":"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.","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.
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Mariaca 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
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Mariaca, 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.
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“Throughout this time, neither her nor any of her family members experienced any symptoms of the virus,” the release reads.
\n","template_type":"","story_teaser":"","owner":"Miami","allow_comments":true,"topic_tags":[],"image":""},{"id":"17725424","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article17725424.html","asset_type":"story","state":"published","title":"As coronavirus strains hospital finances, Jackson Health asks workers to take leave","publication":"miamiherald","layout_option":"none","home":"/web/v1/sections/93341","home_section":{"name":"Coronavirus","url":"https://qa1.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/"},"modified_date":1585257322,"allow_index":true,"allow_follow":true,"meta_title":"Miami’s Jackson Health asks workers to take paid leave","originating_url":"https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article241530156.html","meta_description":"With fewer patients and surgeries at hospitals due to the coronavirus pandemic, Jackson Health System asks support staff and non-clinical workers to voluntarily take personal leave to ease Miami financial crunch.","published_date":1585255608,"authors":[{"name":"Daniel Chang","email":"dchang@miamiherald.com"}],"keywords":"coronavirus, covid-19, hospitals, supplies, contagious, infection, cooperate, pandemic, surge","access_tags":["matbasic"],"additional_sections":["93341","7273","3986","7292"],"credit":"","dateline":"","summary":"With fewer patients and surgeries at hospitals due to the coronavirus pandemic, Jackson Health System asks support staff and non-clinical workers to voluntarily take personal leave to ease Miami financial crunch.","content":"\n
With Miami-Dade’s taxpayer-owned Jackson Health System being squeezed financially by the \n coronavirus pandemic — elective surgeries have been canceled by \n executive order of the governor, there’s been a freefall in patient admissions and a projected drop in county sales tax revenue that provides hundreds of millions of dollars a year in funding — CEO Carlos Migoya is asking employees in support departments and non-clinical roles to voluntarily use paid personal leave over the next few weeks.\n
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Migoya made the request this week via an internal memo addressed to the more than 11,000 employees at Jackson Health.
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“This outbreak is putting unbelievable strain on our financial foundation,” Migoya said in the memo. “The cancellation of elective medical care is dramatically reducing our revenue, and the community’s economic freeze will slash the revenues we receive from local sales taxes.”
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Employees who voluntarily take paid leave now can help Jackson’s bottom line. Employees doing work that isn’t needed right now, because of the focus on coronavirus, won’t have to be replaced, which saves on overtime. And employees who take vacation now won’t be cashing it out at the end of the year, an option for most Jackson Health workers.
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Rene Sanchez, a surgical technician and president of a labor union that represents 5,000 workers at Jackson Health, said on Thursday that the coronavirus pandemic has caused administrators to ration protective gear, such as respirator masks, and caused workers to worry about their ability to pay bills in the event of a prolonged crisis.
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“Employees know this may go on a long time,” he said during a press call with other South Florida labor leaders. “So they want to preserve the vacation days they have because they potentially can get sick and they potentially can be in a situation where they need those days to make payroll for themselves and their families.”
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Sanchez said employee morale at Jackson is strong, and that workers are worried but committed to serving the community.
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“Just like in any crisis like this, we’re scared and we have the courage to come to work,” he said.
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Even with fewer patients in the hospital, Jackson Health must staff enough clinical workers to provide essential care and to stand prepared for an expected surge in cases of \n COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. \n
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On Wednesday, Migoya said the number of patients at Jackson Health was the lowest it has been “in many, many years”.
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“If you walk through Jackson today,” Migoya said, “it’s very empty.”
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Like other Florida hospitals, Jackson Health was forced to cancel elective surgeries starting on March 20 after Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order prohibiting all hospitals, outpatient surgery centers, dentists offices and other healthcare facilities from providing “any medically unnecessary, non-urgent or non-emergency procedure.”
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In addition to the governor’s order, Migoya said, many patients are postponing procedures because they don’t want to be in a hospital during an infectious disease pandemic.
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“The consequences of that are a significant number of empty hospitals,” said Justin Senior, president of the Safety Net Hospital Alliance of Florida, an industry group for public hospitals.
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Senior said his group’s member hospitals, which include Jackson Health and other public hospitals, all are struggling with financial shortfalls due to canceled surgeries and fewer patients.
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The health department’s \n Thursday report said there are 377 people with COVID-19 hospitalized statewide. There are about 250 hospitals in Florida and all were required to cancel non-essential surgeries.\n
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\n “If no other patients are really arriving,” Senior said, “what you’ve got is a fairly normal day at the maternity ward, 10 COVID-19 patients and an empty hospital.”\n
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In addition to empty beds, Senior said, hospitals are also seeing a larger number of patients with suspected cases of COVID-19.
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Senior said the majority of those patients turn out to be negative. But those patients \n must be tested to confirm their status, and with test results taking days or longer to return, hospital workers are having to use protective gear and other resources more often because they’re required to treat those patients as though they were positive for COVID-19. \n
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Jackson Health is one of the largest hospital systems in Florida and operates on a nearly $2 billion annual budget that funds three main hospitals in Miami, North Miami Beach and Palmetto Bay, as well as community clinics, urgent care centers, nursing homes and healthcare for inmates at Miami-Dade jails.
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But Jackson Health is unlike other hospitals in Miami-Dade because it receives about $500 million a year in taxpayer funding through property taxes, sales taxes and general revenue from the county. With bars, restaurants and other non-essential businesses shuttered due to the pandemic, Jackson Health’s tax support is likely to dwindle, too, although it’s still uncertain how much.
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In the memo to employees, Migoya did not say how many employees Jackson Health needs to take voluntary paid leave, or whether the hospital system would resort to layoffs if not enough workers take leave.
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Matt Pinzur, a vice president for Jackson Health, said in an email that no one knows yet how much Jackson needs to save.
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“We are taking this one day at a time,” Pinzur said. “We are not going to speculate on a situation that’s this unpredictable.”
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Sanchez, the Jackson Health union president, urged residents of Miami-Dade to reach out to their elected officials and tell them to support local hospitals.
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“Hospitals shouldn’t have to worry about whether they can make payroll,” Sanchez said. “Right now, they should only have to worry about taking care of patients and taking care of workers.”
