Coronavirus live updates: Here’s what to know in South Florida on April 11
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.
Puerto Rico extends lockdown
7 p.m.: Puerto Rico’s monthlong lockdown to try to keep the coronavirus at bay is going into overtime.
On Saturday, Gov. Wanda Vázquez said she will be keeping nonessential businesses shut through at least May 3, even as she eased a nighttime curfew and carved out a few more exceptions.
Read the full story here.
38 got sick at Winter Festival
4:10 p.m.: On Saturday, the organizers of the Winter Party Festival — which brought thousands of gay men to South Beach for a series of close-quarters dance parties — told the Miami Herald that 38 attendees had become sick since partying at the festival and some of them had tested positive. Of those, many then left Miami and traveled back home to cities like Seattle and Boston.
The Miami Herald reported on March 20 that at least nine positive cases had been reported to the organizers at the LGBTQ Task Force, which hosts the annual Winter Party serves both as a celebration of gay pride and fundraiser. The parties, held in Miami Beach and Miami, took place from March 4-10. And there was very little social distancing; videos of the events show shirtless men gyrating and grinding on each other in poorly ventilated enclosures.
Read the full story here.
Afternoon headline roundup
4 p.m.: Get caught up with the latest headlines from the past couple hours.
▪ Another Miami-Dade Amazon warehouse has positive workers. Four cases in Opa-locka, worker says
▪ Miami-Dade County starts in-house coronavirus testing of seniors on Tuesday
▪ Miami police investigating detainment of doctor who gives homeless virus tests, chief says
No unemployment pickups on Easter Sunday
1:30 p.m.: After four days handing out tens of thousands of state unemployment forms, Miami-Dade libraries will pause on Easter Sunday and then resume the distribution on Monday.
The seven-day operation at 26 branches will be closed Sunday, April 12, then start again at 8 a.m. on Monday. Distribution ends at 7 p.m. daily.
Figures from the first days of the workaround for Florida’s overwhelmed and unprepared unemployment website showed more than 46,000 forms were picked up in Miami-Dade. Nearly 8,000 were returned through libraries’ book drop-off slots.
The Hispanic library branch in Little Havana was the busiest in terms of handing out forms, with more than 5,000 forms distributed. The West Dade library was a close second, handing out more than 4,900 forms.
Coronavirus case number updates
12:05 p.m.: As of Saturday morning, the state’s total cases are at 18,494 and 438 deaths. Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe counties make up 10,792 of those confirmed COVID-19 cases and 250 deaths.
Since Friday evening, the state has seen an increase of 526 cases and 19 new deaths. Florida’s deadliest day since the outbreak began was Thursday, when 48 deaths were added to the toll.
Read the full story here.
Vacation rental suspension extended through end of month
11 a.m.: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis extended his suspension of vacations rentals in the state by a month, until April 30, due to the coranvirus pandemic.
He had originally suspended the rentals on March 27 for a two week period.
Read the full story here.
Miami’s small businesses face extinction
9:05 a.m.: In Miami, where the broader economy is underpinned by small retailers, sole shop owners and corner-store entrepreneurs, Little Haiti and other low-income neighborhoods around it in north Miami-Dade and across the rest of the county are among the most vulnerable to commercial collapse in the current pandemic.
But as Congress, the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury Department hastily unveil billion-dollar relief programs for big corporations, small businesses and individuals, advocates say one critical sector has been overlooked — those tiny mom-and-pop shops that form the commercial backbone in impoverished and immigrant neighborhoods across the country.
Read the full story here.
Florida’s coronavirus testing backlog worse than state says
9 a.m.: On its public website, the Florida Department of Health says about 1,400 people statewide are waiting for their test results. But that’s an undercount, the department acknowledged in response to questions from the Miami Herald. And it’s likely a massive one.
The reason: the state only reports the number of Floridians waiting to hear back from state labs, not private ones — and those private labs are completing more than 90% of Florida’s tests. The state website doesn’t say that its figures exclude the vast majority of pending tests for the novel coronavirus.
Read the full story here.
Catch up to start the day
8:45 a.m.: Here are the coronavirus headlines to catch you up on what’s happening around South Florida and the state as Saturday begins.
▪ Broward deputies’ union leader suspended after criticizing sheriff over protective gear
▪ Miami-Dade has most coronavirus deaths in Florida. State nears 18,000 cases, 419 deaths.
▪ National Guard does in-home coronavirus tests at Miami senior residential facilities.
▪ More than 250 Miami Beach workers fired, city manager takes furlough in COVID crisis.
▪ Keys doctors get tested for COVID-19 while working on the front lines of the pandemic.
This story was originally published April 11, 2020 at 9:04 AM.
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