Coronavirus live updates: Here’s what to know in South Florida on June 26
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.
MIAMI-DADE COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS SHIFT PLANS AGAIN
6:45 p.m.: Miami-Dade County Public Schools’ plans keep shifting as COVID-19 cases continue to spike exponentially.
The school district was due to announce its plan to reopen schools for the coming school year Wednesday, but postponed to squeeze in one more meeting with its work group of medical professionals and community members. The full plan will now be presented at a special School Board meeting Wednesday, a week after was originally planned.
COVID-19 COULD BE CONTRIBUTING TO WEST NILE OUTBREAK
6:15 p.m.: COVID-19 isn’t the only outbreak happening in South Florida. On Friday, the Florida Department of Health reported 10 new cases of West Nile virus in Miami-Dade County, more than doubling the county’s yearly caseload to 14. County mosquito-control chief William Petrie speculates the coronavirus pandemic is contributing to the outbreak because the safety precautions have altered daily life so severely.
“People have been home for the past three months,” Petrie said. “Out in the backyard more often perhaps. On the balcony. It’s speculation on my part. That could be playing into it.”
PANTHERS’ CAPTAIN SAYS TEAM EMBRACING UNUSUAL RESTART PLAN
5:45 p.m.: Every major professional sports league in the United States is attempting to make their comebacks under less-than-ideal circumstances. The Florida Panthers are excited about just getting the opportunity to return to the ice, though.
Center Aleksander Barkov, the team captain, said Thursday his teammates “can’t wait” to resume the season at a yet-to-be-announced hub location, even though they will be effectively living in a “bubble.”
“For me, I don’t really need to go anywhere and I think we’re the same way, our players,” Barkov said. “We talk a lot in the group chat. Most of the guys, they can’t wait.”
NBA RAISES CONCERNS ABOUT INCREASING COVID-19 CASES IN FLORIDA
4:50 p.m.: In July, the NBA plans to have 24 of its teams, including the Miami Heat, descend upon Central Florida to close out the regular season and crown a champion. Rapidly increasing confirmed cases of COVID-19, however, are causing the league some concern.
Although the league fully expects to crown a champion in October, commissioner Adam Silver could not definitively assure that there won’t be another stoppage because of the uncertainty of the virus, particularly because of increasing case counts in Florida and across the entire country. As a counter measure, the NBA plans to test players daily while they’re closing out the season at Walt Disney World’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.
MLB PUTS IN PLACE 100-PAGE OPERATIONS MANUAL FOR COVID RESTART
4:10 p.m.: The long-delayed start of the MLB season is now less than a month away and the league has a manual spanning more than 100 pages to hopefully pull off the 60-game season.
The list of limitations is wide-range. High fives and spitting are banned. Pitchers will use a wet rag instead of licking their fingers. It also hits on topics like COVID-19 testing and isolation protocols for if — almost certainly when — a player tests positive.
“It’s about being as correct as you can be,” said Dr. Lee Kaplan, the Miami Marlins’ team medical director. “And when it’s not correct, you correct it, you overcorrect and you stay nimble.”
TRUMP’S PUSH TO END ACA AMID PANDEMIC COULD ROIL MIAMI POLITICS
3:40 p.m.: A renewed effort by the White House to overturn the Affordable Care Act is stirring campaign politics in battleground Florida, a must-win state for President Donald Trump which is home to nearly 2 million Obamacare consumers — most in the nation.
Miami Rep. Donna Shalala, a former Health and Human Services secretary under former President Bill Clinton, called the effort “immoral.” She said there are 100,000 people in her district alone relying on Obamacare. No county in the U.S. has more people signed up for 2020 Obamacare coverage than Miami-Dade’s 457,000, according to data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which manages the federal insurance exchange at healthcare.gov.
“The idea in the middle of COVID-19 to eliminate health insurance from 100,000 people in my district is a new disaster,” Shalala said, noting Florida hasn’t expanded Medicaid, leaving more than 400,000 Floridians currently uninsured. “It would create a huge gap. More importantly just think of individual people who suddenly lose their health insurance, and we’re in the middle of a pandemic.”
KEY WEST TIGHTENS COVID-19 RESTRICTIONS
3:10 p.m.: As COVID-19 cases increase across the state, Key West is taking new measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The city’s annual Independence Day fireworks display is off after the Key West City Commission unanimously voted to cancel the annual show, although beaches will remain open on the holiday.
The commissioners also tightened up the city’s mandatory mask law, making it punishable either by citation or a $500 fine.
PINECREST SYNAGOGUE PIVOTS TO DRIVE-IN SERVICES
2:40 p.m.: With the COVID-19 pandemic still raging and services over video chat feeling stale, a synagogue in Pinecrest is trying out drive-in shabbat services.
This weekend, Bet Shira Congregation will host a series of drive-in services in the synagogue’s parking lot with a rabbi standing on a stage 20 feet away from the nearest car.
EXPERTS SAY FLORIDA’S WINDOW TO ACT ON VIRUS IS CLOSING
2:10 p.m.: The jump to nearly 9,000 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday had been coming for days and even weeks. The explosive spread of the coronavirus in Florida and other states is much wider than the rising number of cases indicate, the nation’s top public health officials said Thursday — the same day that the United States saw the highest single day of new cases, more than 37,000. Public health experts warned that now is the time for state and local governments to slow reopening efforts before the only option left is another shutdown of the economy.
As new COVID-19 cases soar and hospital admissions rise in response, public health experts say they are concerned state officials are making policy decisions based on test data that reflects infections that occurred weeks ago.
On Friday, state governments finally took action after Florida announced a record of new cases. Texas and Florida both suspended the consumption of alcohol at bars statewide, and Texas rolled back restaurants to a limited 50-percent capacity.
COVID-19 CAUSES 31.7 PERCENT DIP IN FLORIDA SALES TAX REVENUE
1:40 p.m.: Florida’s sales tax revenue came in 31.7 percent below projections in May, state economists announced Monday as Gov. Ron DeSantis prepares to make deep cuts to the state budget for the next fiscal year.
Collections were $695.4 million below their estimates, made in January before COVID-19 sent the state’s tourism-driven economy into a tailspin. All sectors of the economy besides building-related industries were hurt, state economists wrote.
DeSantis is preparing to make big cuts to the state’s $93.2 billion budget for the next fiscal year, which begins Wednesday. State lawmakers passed the budget in March, as the state started to see its first cases of COVID-19. Sales taxes are the biggest source of dollars for the state’s general revenue fund, which goes to schools, state agencies and other programs.
SOUTH FLORIDA STRIP CLUBS STILL OFFER LAPDANCES DURING PANDEMIC
1:10 p.m.: Yes, you can get a lapdance if you really want during the age of COVID-19. If you feel so inclined to pop in to one of a handful of strip clubs which have reopened in South Florida, this service is currently being offered.
Miami-Dade County deputy mayor Jennifer Moon said the dancers must suit up accordingly, as in wear proper personal protective equipment, such as a mask or facial shield, as well as gloves. Clients must wear masks as well. The guidelines for a lap dance are the same ones applied to getting a massage, Moon said.
You probably won’t be able to get alcohol while you’re at the strip club, though. On Friday, the Florida Department of Business and Regulatory Affairs suspended alcohol consumption at bars statewide.
FEMALE INMATES AT HOMESTEAD PRISON DIE OF COVID-19
12:40 p.m.: The first two female deaths from COVID-19 in Florida’s prisons occurred Thursday at Homestead Correctional Institution, according to friends, family and an advocate for female inmates.
Tyra Williams was 41. Josefa Davila was 64. Their deaths bring the overall toll in the Florida prison system to 23 after 21 male inmates died from the coronavirus.
The Homestead prison has become a hotspot for the virus in the last month with nearly half of the approximately 660 inmates testing positive. As of Friday, 302 inmates and 34 staff had tested positive.
FLORIDA SUSPENDS ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION AT BARS
12:10 p.m.: About an hour after Florida’s Department of Health confirmed a record 8,942 new cases of the coronavirus, the Florida Department of Business and Regulatory Affairs announced it is suspending alcohol consumption at all bars statewide.
Bars in Miami-Dade and Broward counties had not reopened under COVID-19 restrictions. Bars had reopened in the Florida Keys, although several popular ones, including Sloppy Joe’s on Duval Street, voluntarily remained closed.
It is not immediately clear how the announcement affects restaurants which serve alcohol, restaurants with bars serving alcohol or bars serving food.
FLORIDA’S UPDATED CASE NUMBERS
11:35 a.m.: Florida’s Department of Health on Friday confirmed 8,942 cases of the coronavirus, bringing the state total to 122,960. The state also announced at least 137 new deaths, bringing the total of COVID-19 deaths north of 3,400. The massive total of new cases nearly doubles the state’s previous single-day record.
In the last seven days, Florida has reported 29,163 new cases — nearly a quarter of all the confirmed cases in the state so far.
The alarming case total came on a day of record testing, but the percentage of tests coming back positive remains elevated beyond the 10-percent threshold recommended by public health experts. On Friday, 71,433 people were tested and about 14.74 percent of those tests came back positive.
MIAMI MANDATES MASKS IN PUBLIC
11 a.m.: Miami issued a new emergency order Thursday mandating people to wear face masks in public or face a civil fine, a response to the alarming rise in COVID-19 cases in South Florida and across the state.
The order, signed at 5 p.m. on Thursday, took immediate effect and requires anyone in public spaces in the city of Miami to wear face masks, with a series of exceptions for children under 2, people with disabilities preventing the use of a mask, someone eating or doing outdoor work, someone hearing impaired or communicating with someone hearing impaired and someone obtaining service involving the face, which would require temporary removal of the mask.
Violators could be handed a fine with $50 for a first offense following a warning, $150 for a second offense and $500 for a third.
COVID-19 COULD MEAN LONGER POWER OUTAGES IF HURRICANE HITS
10:30 a.m.: Every year before hurricane season, Florida Power & Light and others on the front lines of disaster response make plans to bring reinforcements from other states to help if a big one hits. In the past, contractors and crews have come from as far away as Canada to aid local utility workers in getting homes back on the grid. In the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, it may not happen, which could mean more days without power or internet, probably in the sweltering summer heat.
“The pandemic is going to impact us in ways that aren’t helpful because it creates less productivity,” FPL CEO Eric Silagy said. “That’s why I really need customers to be prepared because we may have extended outages.”
The utility’s staging sites, the backbone of FPL’s massive hurricane response operations, won’t run at full capacity to reduce the risk of transmission among workers. Temperature checks will be mandatory for every response member. Travel restrictions could prevent out-of-state and out-of-country workers from getting down to Florida, too.
LAID-OFF AIRPORT WORKERS PROTEST AT AMERICAN AIRLINES OFFICES
10 a.m.: Workers laid off from the subcontractor Eulen America gathered in front of American Airlines’ office in Coral Gables on Thursday to ask for their jobs back and urge American Airlines to cut ties with the company.
Some workers at the protest said they were laid off due to the COVID-19 pandemic and have yet to hear back from the company despite being told they would get their jobs back. American Sales & Management, a limited liability company acquired by Eulen America, is anticipated to receive nearly $26 million in Payroll Support Program funds from the federal CARES Act, which is meant to help industries preserve jobs during the pandemic.
FIU ALTERS REOPENING PLAN
9:30 a.m.: In late May, the first draft of Florida International University’s reopening plan surfacing. The plan, dubbed “Panthers Protecting Panthers,” specified three reopening phases and arranged for FIU to slowly move into each one when the community conditions became safe to do so.
On June 16, the Board of Governors’ approved a different plan. The detailed phase-by-phase reopening system was abandoned. Provost Kenneth Furton said in an email Thursday the plan was altered for a handful of reasons, including a Board-mandated 20-page limit and a hope to make it easier for the community to read.
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 Friday begins:
▪ Florida’s Department of Health on Thursday confirmed 5,004 additional cases of COVID-19, the state’s second-highest single day total since the pandemic began. The state now has 114,018 confirmed cases.
▪ Initial unemployment claims in Florida climbed the last week to more than 93,394, suggesting a full economic recovery remains out of reach. It’s an increase of 5,246 following two weeks of decreasing claims.
▪ Employees at 13 Publix and Aldi stores had employees test positive for the coronavirus. More than 40 grocery stores have had employees test positive since the pandemic began in March.
▪ Miami Heat forward Derrick Jones Jr. tested positive for COVID-19 after the NBA began league-wide mandated testing Tuesday. The Heat is scheduled to travel to Central Florida to resume the season next month and the Slam Dunk Contest champion plans to join the team.
▪ An undisclosed Miami Marlins player, who had used team facilities in Jupiter this month, also tested positive for the coronavirus. MLB is scheduled to begin training camps Wednesday.
▪ Apple is closing all Apple Stores across South Florida as case counts continue to climb across the state.
▪ Even as cases climb, 1 in 5 Floridians said they’d been out to eat at a restaurant or bar in the previous 24 hours, according to a SurveyMonkey survey. The 21-percent rate is slightly above the national average of 18 percent.
▪ With COVID-19 spreading, Miami-Dade County plans to provide free lodging for the infected, and dispatch “surge” teams with masks and hand sanitizers to the hardest-hit neighborhoods.
This story was originally published June 26, 2020 at 9:00 AM with the headline "Coronavirus live updates: Here’s what to know in South Florida on June 26."
