Coronavirus live updates: Here’s what to know in South Florida on June 10
We’re keeping track of the latest news regarding the coronavirus in South Florida and around the state.
Check back for updates on COVID-19 throughout the day.
FRANCHISE COMPANIES SHOP SOUTH FLORIDA AMID PANDEMIC
5:50 p.m.: While many all-cash investors are waiting to see how the pandemic progresses, opportunities are opening up for commercial buyers who depend on financing, which is good news for franchisees whose brands serve middle-class clients.
South Florida commercial real estate agents and lawyers have seen a flurry of deals from fast-food restaurants, spa brands and automotive chains. The pace of acquisitions is noticeably higher now than in June of last year, said Miguel Pinto, president and broker at Apex Capital Realty in Miami.
“Investors are on the sidelines. As in the Great Recession, prices didn’t drop in 2008. They dropped in 2009,” Pinto said. Today, the only buyers he sees are owners and end users that searched prior to the pandemic but “were competing with investor offers and they couldn’t win the deal.”
Read the full story here.
MOST STATES NOT REPORTING PROBABLE COVID-19 CASES
5:20 p.m.: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are missing data on probable COVID-19 cases from many states.
More than half of states didn’t provide the agency with data on their probable coronavirus cases, based on daily data from Monday. This is despite Centers for Diseason Control guidelines that states should report such cases — meaning the CDC could be undercounting the number of cases in the country.
Read the full story here.
WHAT DOES FLORIDA’S FUTURE HOLD? JOIN SUBSCRIBER-ONLY DISCUSSION.
4:50 p.m.: The COVID-19 panemic struck a blow to nearly every aspect of civic and business life. As more of daily life moves from shelter at home to functioning at a safe social distance, what should we expect from healthcare, hospitality, higher education and general business? The Miami Herald is hosting a panel Friday with Florida experts to discuss, exclusive to subscribers of the Miami Herald and Bradenton Herald.
The panel features quantitative futurist Amy Webb, Welwaze Medical founder Alex Jimenez-Ness, Florida International University finance professor Joanne Li and Elaine Black, president of the Liberty City Community Revitalization Trust.
RSVP now to reserve your spot and read the full story here.
SEMINOLE CASINOS REOPEN FRIDAY
3:55 p.m.: Three South Florida casinos owned and operated by the Seminole Tribe of Florida are set to reopen after spending nearly three months closed because of the COVID-19 panemic. The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood, Seminole Casino Coconut Creek and Seminole Classic Casino in Hollywood are all slated to reopen Friday with restrictions in place to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Capacity will be cut to 50 percent, masks will be required, and all guests and employees will have their temperatures checked before they enter the casinos. Plexiglas barriers will separate players at table and poker games, and other customer service areas. Hand sanitizing stations will also be set up throughout the casinos.
Even “The Guitar Hotel” at the Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood will be open with 600 rooms available.
Read the full story here.
MIAMI SPORTS HALL OF FAME ASKS FOR FINANCIAL HELP AMID PANDEMIC
3 p.m.: The University of Miami Sports Hall of Fame is in financial danger after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the not-for-profit organization to postpone or cancel some of its largest fundraising events, including the 2020 induction ceremony. Now it’s explicitly asking for help, launching a GoFundMe page so it can continue operating independent of the university.
Additionally, UM Sports Hall of Fame executive director John Routh and a volunteer board of directors have selected Miami Hurricanes memorabilia, much of it signed by former Miami greats, to sell online to help raise money.
Read the full story here.
RSVP: ‘BENDING THE CURVE PART 3’ FOCUSES ON HEALTHCARE POLICY
2 p.m.: McClatchy is bringing together top medical professionals, industry experts, patient advocates and policymakers to discuss the latest advancements for combating the novel coronavirus. The series is designed to be an exchange of ideas in a civil forum focused on solutions. Part 3 of “Bending the Curve” focuses on how COVID-19 is affecting healthcare policy.
Tune in for the live stream Thursday at 12:30 p.m. RSVP for the event here.
PANTHERS RETURN TO PRACTICE FACILITY
1 p.m.: After going nearly three months without skating, some members of the Florida Panthers could finally return to the ice Wednesday. The Florida Panthers IceDen, Florida’s practice facility in Coral Springs, finally reopened Wednesday for small group workouts as the NHL begins slowly ramping up to resume the season this summer.
It’s part of Phase 2 of the NHL’s return-to-play plan, which began earlier this week. On Monday, the NHL formally began the phase, which allowed teams to reopen practice facilities for small, voluntary group workouts with considerations made to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Florida opened its doors again Wednesday.
Read the full story here.
FLORIDA’S UPDATED CASE NUMBERS
12:30 p.m.: Florida’s Department of Health on Wednesday confirmed 1,371 additional cases of COVID-19, bringing the state’s total to 2,801 cases. There were also 36 new deaths announced, raising the statewide toll to 2,801. This is the seventh time in the last eight days the state reported more than 1,000 new cases of the coronavirus.
Miami-Dade County reported 297 new cases of the virus and 10 new deaths, and Broward County reported 158 cases and three deaths. Palm Beach County reported 160 new cases and nine new deaths, and Monroe County reported two cases and one death.
The uptick in new cases is largely do to the growth of Florida’s testing numbers in recent days and weeks, although testing data for Wednesday was not immediately available. The total percentage of positive tests has dropped to about 5.24 percent.
Read the full story here.
BEACHGOERS FLOCK TO NEWLY REOPENED MIAMI-DADE COUNTY BEACHES
Noon: As visitors to the newly liberated sands of South Beach stepped onto the public beach Wednesday, they were asked if they had a face covering and if they wanted to rent a chair. The ambassadors, provided to the city of Miami Beach by the beach concessionaire Boucher Brothers, worked as gatekeepers on the first day back on the beach for residents after 12 weeks of COVID-19 closures.
In the North Beach neighborhood around 75th Street, more than 100 beachgoers were scattered along the sand and in the water over a stretch of several blocks by around 10 a.m. Most lounged and swam in groups of one or two, sometimes three, with the exception of families with young children.
Read the full story here.
BEACHES REOPEN IN MIAMI-DADE COUNTY. HOW’S THE WEATHER?
11:30 a.m.: Beaches are back open Wednesday in Miami-Dade County for the first time March. However, so are South Florida’s typical weather patterns.
The National Weather Service in Miami is forecasting scattered thunderstorms throughout the afternoon Wednesday with a 40-percent chance of rain. The weekend could be wet, too, with rain chances ranging from 60-70 percent Saturday and Sunday.
Read the full story here.
PROTESTERS URGE ICE TO CUT TIES WITH CONTRACTOR AFTER OUTBREAK
11 a.m.: Immigration advocates demanded Tuesday the federal government cut ties with the Glades County Sheriff’s Office — which runs a detention center ranking among the nation’s top 10 with the most COVID-19 cases — because they say detainees who have the coronavirus are being housed with those who haven’t been tested and the facility provides inadequate medical care.
The advocates held a protest Tuesday outside U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Miami field office in Plantation four days after a federal judge barred the agency from grouping infected detainees at Glades, and two other centers in Miami-Dade and Broward, with detainees who have not tested positive for the virus.
Read the full story here.
MIAMI-DADE SCHOOLS TRANSFORM MIGRANT CAMP INTO SCHOOL
10:30 a.m.: Four staff members for Miami-Dade County Public Schools have teamed up to transform a secret migrant camp, made up of abandoned landscaping trailers, into a makeshift summer school.
Most of the children, many of them from impoverished areas of Guatemala, had never stepped inside a school before last year, when a neighbor spotted them playing outside during school hours. When she told a local principal, it set in motion an unlikely visit from superintendent Alberto Carvalho.
One of the staffers is a cafeteria director for Miami-Dade Schools and she started driving over lunches to the children when the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to close. As most of the parents are farm workers, children are alone during the day, so these four staffers have taken it upon themselves to craft a summer-school program for the children as they hide from local authorities in an undisclosed location.
Read the full story here.
FLORIDA LAWMAKER: UNEMPLOYMENT SYSTEM SUFFERS FROM ‘NEGLECT’
10 a.m.: A Miami state senator testifying before the United States Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday highlighted the shortcomings of Florida’s unemployment system to federal lawmakers.
Democratic state Sen. José Javier Rodríguez told senators Florida’s unemployment system, which was implemented by Republican Sen. Rick Scott when he was governor of Florida, “suffered from willful neglect for a long time.” He said the problems were no secret, with “audit after audit,” and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis knew about the issues because one of the audits was “on the governor’s desk” when he came into office.
Read the full story here.
MLS DETAILS RETURN PLAN, SETS START DATE
9:30 a.m.: Major League Soccer on Wednesday morning announced details and the schedule for the league’s plan to restart the 2020 season with all 26 teams — including Inter Miami — competing in the MLS is Back Tournament at Walt Disney World’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.
The tournament, which will be played without fans in attendance, begins in July and will span a little more than a month in Lake Buena Vista. Group stage matches will count in the MLS regular season standings and the tournament winner will earn a spot in the 2021 CONCACAF Champions League.
Read the full story here.
CATCH UP TO START THE DAY
9 a.m.: Here are the coronavirus headlines to catch you up on what’s happening around South Florida and the state as Tuesday begins:
▪ Florida’s Department of Health on Tuesday confirmed 1,096 additional cases of COVID-19, bringing the state’s total 66,000 new cases.There were also 53 new deaths announced, raising the statewide toll to 2,765. This is the sixth time in the last seven days the state reported more than 1,000 new cases of the coronavirus.
▪ NASCAR will host 1,000 military service members as fans at the Dixie Vodka 400 on Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway. It will be the first time non-essential have attended a major sporting event in Florida since the pandemic began in March.
▪ Some businesses are thriving amid the COVID-19 pandemic, namely those which can produce products to combat the coronavirus.
▪ Even as more business reopen in Miami Beach, panhandling remains illegal within 50 feet of essential businesses and restaurants.
▪ Florida’s unemployment system is rife with issues, even making it difficult for people to return unemployment checks made in error.
▪ One football player for the Florida State Seminoles and three for the Central Florida Knights tested positive for the coronavirus since athletes returned to campuses last week.
▪ The Miami Hurricanes, meanwhile, did not disclose whether anyone has tested positive since football players began returning to Coral Gables.
▪ Newly reopened gyms are adjusting to a socially distanced world.
▪ A beloved International Baccalaureate teacher at Miami’s Coral Reef Senior High School is retiring after 44 1/2 years due to the uncertainty COVID-19 is causing for next school year.
▪ Beaches are back open in Miami-Dade County on Wednesday, but the Miami Herald asks: What if beaches are actually bad?
This story was originally published June 10, 2020 at 9:03 AM with the headline "Coronavirus live updates: Here’s what to know in South Florida on June 10."
