Coronavirus live updates: Here’s what to know in South Florida on May 15
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.
State death toll approaches 2,000
5:15 p.m.: Florida’s Department of Health on Friday confirmed 928 additional cases of COVID-19, pushing the state’s total of confirmed cases to 44,138. There were also 42 new deaths announced, raising the statewide death toll to 1,917.
Read the full story here.
Protecting elderly loved ones from COVID-19
3:15 p.m.: Over the course of COVID-19’s spread throughout the country and state, elder care residential facilities have emerged as especially deadly virus hotspots. In Florida, nursing homes and assisted living facilities (ALFs) have tallied more than 800 coronavirus-related casualties so far. That means elder care homes now account for 42 percent of the state’s total death toll, a percentage that has been steadily creeping upward.
But advocates explain that, to have a comprehensive understanding of seniors’ unique vulnerabilities during this time, it’s important to consider not just the residents of nursing homes or ALFs — Florida has roughly 170,000 people living in such facilities — but also the vast majority of older adults who live at home.
Read the full story here.
Miami business owners take reopening slowly
3 p.m.: As Jessica Goldman Srebnick contemplates reopening Wynwood Walls, the complex of murals, galleries, retail and restaurants that drove the neighborhood’s transformation, she hesitates.
Her employees and her family company, Goldman Properties, have suffered a substantial blow after shutting down most operations in March, including The Hotel in South Beach, because of the coronavirus pandemic, she said. The company furloughed all but 38 of its 260 employees.
But as Miami-Dade County, Miami and Miami Beach, among other local governments, prepare to allow some nonessential businesses to restart under an encyclopedic set of restrictions as early as Monday, Goldman says she’s unsure how far or how quickly she’s ready to move, given that the deadly virus is still spreading and the course of the outbreak remains unclear.
Read the full story here.
Gyms are opening in Florida... But not yet in Miami-Dade
1:45 p.m.: Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Friday the state will move into a “full Phase 1” reopening starting Monday. That means gyms, which have until now been excluded from the partial reopening that started May 4, can reopen.
However, this might not be immediately seen in South Florida. Gyms are still going to be closed in Miami-Dade when it begins its Yellow Flag Phase of reopening on Monday. Broward County, meanwhile, is only allowing fitness center and gyms in residential buildings to reopen starting on Monday but only at 50 percent capacity and will be limited to residents only.
Civil rights group sues for information about COVID-19 in prisons
1:15 p.m.: For nearly the first month after cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in Florida, the Florida Department of Corrections was fairly tight-lipped about precautions it was taking in the prison system, where social distancing is nearly impossible.
And while the agency has expanded its website to provide information about things like mask distribution to inmates and staff, testing among the population and how many inmates are being quarantined, there is still little information that explains, for example, at what point the department would decide to hospitalize a sick inmate or details on how the department safely transfers inmates from facility to facility or dorm to dorm.
The Southern Poverty Law Center is suing the Florida Department of Corrections for records that better explain the way it is handling the spread of the disease in its facilities, which have 1,033 infected inmates and 231 infected staff, as of Friday morning. Nine inmates have died.
Read the full story here.
Miami-Dade overhauls hurricane shelter plans
11:35 a.m.: This hurricane season, which officially starts June 1, is already unlike any other. And not because it could be off to an early start this weekend.
For the first time, leaders have to figure out how to keep people safe from a potentially life-threatening hurricane rampaging outside, and a highly contagious and lethal disease spreading inside.
Miami-Dade’s plan? More shelters, more space and COVID-19 testing at the door.
Read the full story here.
Ocean Drive closing to cars
11:05 a.m.: Ocean Drive in South Beach will be closed to traffic this weekend, and for the foreseeable future.
The popular seaside promenade will close at 7 a.m. Saturday and stay that way indefinitely, Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber said.
The closure, pushed by open-streets activists for years, will give more room for pedestrians and bicyclists to exercise during the coronavirus pandemic and allow restaurants to expand outdoor seating when they reopen on May 27.
Read the full story here.
Lawsuit: Keys checkpoints bad for business
10:45 a.m.: If you ask Monroe County leaders, the two checkpoints that stop visitors from entering the Florida Keys have kept the COVID-19 infection rate relatively low.
Miami-Dade and Broward counties are hot spots for the novel coronavirus. Those two Keys checkpoints, installed March 27 at mile marker 112.5 on U.S. 1 and County Road 905, have set up a controlled border, keeping out people from the mainland who don’t live or work in Keys.
But those checkpoints have also kept out tourists from driving to the end of the road and spending their cash, say a group of Key West business owners who question whether they’re legal.
Read the full story here.
Is dining out safe?
10:10 a.m.: Miami-Dade County announced Wednesday it would allow restaurants to reopen May 18 and at 50 percent capacity, higher than the 25 percent Gov. Ron DeSantis had approved for the rest of the state. DeSantis signed off on the county’s exemption Thursday.
Several other cities, however, including Miami, Miami Beach and Miami Gardens, have banded together to say they will not allow restaurants to reopen until May 27.
That leaves Miami-Dade diners and restaurant workers with the most important question: How safe will it be to return to restaurants Monday?
Read the full story here.
Applying for unemployment can feel like a full-time job
9 a.m.: Janice Bernstein lost her job, and then she lost her mind.
In the eight weeks since her workplace was shut down by coronavirus pandemic stay-at-home orders, she and almost 2 million Floridians have struggled to claim unemployment checks from the state agency funded by taxpayers for the purpose of providing aid in hard times. Even its name is a cruel taunt: Department of Economic Opportunity.
The department’s maniacal website seems designed to defeat even the most diligent applicant, such as Bernstein, who describes herself as a bulldog. After hundreds of phone calls, dozens of password resets, 100 emails and countless hours feeling like a rat in the department’s maze, Bernstein has yet to extract a penny from the state to pay her bills.
Read the full story here.
Rent assistance available in Miami Beach
8:45 a.m.: Bread lines have replaced club lines in Miami Beach, as the city’s hospitality economy has withered under two months of coronavirus closures.
Sectors of the economy, starting with retail stores and grooming services, will reopen next week, followed by restaurants the week after. But in the meantime, a growing number of the city’s 92,000 residents remain financially insecure.
On Wednesday, the City Commission approved the use of $549,111 in federal grant money to help renters pay their landlords. The city has also ramped up feeding efforts by pledging about $175,000 per month in general fund money to feed up to 600 families a week in walk-up food distributions.
Read the full story here.
CATCH UP TO START THE DAY
8:30 a.m.: Here are the coronavirus headlines to catch you up on what’s happening around South Florida and the state as Friday begins.
▪ They were coughing, achy, feverish. The nursing home told them to get to work. Big mistake
▪ DeSantis gives go-ahead for Miami-Dade and Broward to reopen businesses Monday
▪ Citing stormy weather, Florida halts COVID testing at some drive-thru, walk-up sites
▪ Florida coronavirus cases push past 43,200 as the death toll jumps to 1,875
This story was originally published May 15, 2020 at 9:03 AM with the headline "Coronavirus live updates: Here’s what to know in South Florida on May 15."
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