Coronavirus live updates: Here’s what to know in South Florida on April 5
We’re keeping track of the latest news regarding the coronavirus in South Florida and around the state. Check back for updates throughout the day.
SUNDAY NIGHT UPDATE
7:05 p.m.: The Florida Department of Health COVID-19 dashboard figures showed another 199 confirmed cases were added by Sunday evening, bringing the state total to 12,350, and another three deaths since the report early Sunday, bringing the state total to 221.
Overall, Miami-Dade County added another 85 confirmed cases to hit 4,146. Another 15 reported confirmed cases in Broward County brought its total to 1,886.
Miami-Dade and Broward counties account for 48.9 percent of the state’s total confirmed cases.
Read the full story here.
MIAMI-DADE MAYOR GIVES UPDATE
5 p.m.: Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez posted a video update Sunday regarding the county’s effort to slow the spread of COVID-19.
“My team continues to monitor the number of beds and ventilators we have available at all of our hospitals,” Gimenez said in the video. “... We’re in good shape for now. But we will be monitoring the supply of hospital and ICU beds daily, as well as the respirators available in Miami-Dade County.”
Here’s the video update from Gimenez ...
MARIO DIAZ-BALART ABLE TO REUNITE WITH FAMILY
3:20 p.m.: Miami Republican Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, who was the first member of Congress to test positive for the coronavirus, announced Sunday on Twitter that he had tested negative for the virus and was able to reunite with his family.
FLORIDA ACKNOWLEDGES FIRST CONFIRMED CASE FOR PRISON INMATE
2 p.m.: The Florida Department of Corrections has acknowledged its first positive test for an inmate.
The prisoner with the positive test, whose name was not released, had been locked up at the Blackwater River Correctional Facility near Pensacola, a private prison under the state’s purview run by the GEO Group. The information was posted on the department’s website Saturday.
Twenty-three prison staff members and contract staff had already been diagnosed with COVID-19.
Read the full story here.
AN UPDATE ON CORAL PRINCESS SHIP
1:45 p.m.: Family members of sick passengers still stuck on board the Coral Princess at PortMiami Sunday say their loved ones urgently need hospital care as their health deteriorates.
Read the full story here.
A CORONAVIRUS MESSAGE FROM GLORIA ESTEFAN
12:50 p.m.: Miami singer Gloria Estefan posted a message and video on her Instagram account saying she wanted to contribute something that would put a bit of humor into a very serious situation.
Here it is ...
UPDATED FLORIDA CASE NUMBERS
12 p.m.: The Florida Department of Health figures on Sunday morning showed another 606 confirmed cases of COVID-19 were added overnight, bringing the state total to 12,151, and another 23 deaths, bringing the state total to 218. Of those 23 added deaths, 22 were in Palm Beach County (14) and Broward County (eight).
That means Miami-Dade (31), Broward (40), Palm Beach (49) and Monroe (two) counties account for 56 percent of the COVID-19 deaths in Florida. Their 6,973 confirmed cases are 57.4 percent of the state’s total.
Read the full story here.
Florida’s case numbers will be updated again Sunday evening.
CORAL PRINCESS PASSENGER PASSES AWAY
11:30 a.m.: Wilson Maa, 71, passed away Saturday night at Larkin Community Hospital in Hialeah from complications associated with COVID-19.
Maa was onboard the Coral Princess, and his family members called 911 to get him help with the ship docked in Port Miami.
An ambulance picked up Maa from the ship around 10 p.m. on Saturday and took him to Larkin Community Hospital’s Hialeah campus. Maa died hours after reaching the hospital. His wife is still aboard the Coral Princess under medical supervision.
“We are beyond heartbroken and we will miss our father dearly. He was the best husband, father and gong gong,” his family wrote in a statement. “We are so lucky to have a father that was so silly, fun, engineering minded and thoughtful. There are no words for the sorrow we have experienced but only joy for the memories we had with him.”
A VISUAL PORTRAIT OF LIFE IN MIAMI-DADE
9:50 a.m.: COVID-19 has had a major impact on most of the world, including South Florida.
In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic that has drastically changed life in Miami-Dade County, Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald visual journalists set out to capture the impact of the outbreak through their lenses from dawn to dusk. This is a compilation of images from various neighborhoods in our community.
CATCH UP TO START THE DAY
9:15 a.m.: Here are the coronavirus headlines to catch you up on what’s happening around South Florida and the state as Sunday begins.
▪ As cases of the coronavirus continue to surge through South Florida, the pandemic is overwhelming some of the states’ safety nets, hitting law enforcement, social services and healthcare workers.
▪ The Florida Health Department said Saturday evening the state now has 11,545 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 195 deaths.
▪ Broward Superintendent Robert Runcie in a video address Friday night summed up the school district’s first week of online learning — and predicted this would be the new norm for the rest of the school year.
▪ Miami-Dade County is opening a new drive-through coronavirus testing site at the South Dade Government Center for anyone over 18 years old who shows symptoms or meets other federal guidelines for testing for COVID-19.
▪ Seven residents of a Miami nursing home run by Jackson Health System have been hospitalized after testing positive for COVID-19, hospital officials said Saturday night.
▪ A military veteran who fell ill from the coronavirus in mid-March at a Florida VA nursing home in Pembroke Pines has died, state officials confirmed Saturday.
▪ After waiting four hours for a desperately needed hospital bed and ventilator, family members of a COVID-19 patient onboard the Coral Princess called 911, rather than continuing to wait on the cruise line to get their loved one to safety.
This story was originally published April 5, 2020 at 9:19 AM with the headline "Coronavirus live updates: Here’s what to know in South Florida on April 5."
