Four Zoo Miami employees in quarantine after testing positive for coronavirus
Four Zoo Miami employees are in quarantine after testing positive for COVID-19 this past week, zoo officials announced Sunday.
The zoo says only one of the four employees had direct contact with guests and that all of them wore face masks and followed social distancing procedures. One of the employees also interacted with some of the animals.
The four employees were sent home once the test results came back positive, according to the zoo. The zoo also used contact tracing to determine what other employees might have been in contact with the sick workers and are waiting to receive their test results.
As for the animals who were in contact with one of the sick workers, all of them are “being carefully monitored by our animal health team and none have shown any symptoms of being infected,” said Zoo Miami spokesman Ron Magill to the Miami Herald Monday morning.
Six other employees who might have been in contact with the sick workers are also in quarantine, according to Local 10.
Zoo Miami reopened on June 1 at limited capacity with social distancing guidelines in place to limit the risk of COVID-19 transmission including daily temperature checks for employees, requiring everyone 2 and older to wear a mask and one-way only directional floor decals in various exhibits such as Wings of Asia, Critter Connection and Florida: Mission Everglades.
All interactive feeding experiences, including those with giraffes, camels and parrots, are once again canceled until further notice, according to the zoo.
In April, before the zoo was allowed to reopen, two of its Sumatran tigers were tested for the novel coronavirus after the big cats began experiencing runny noses and a lack of appetite. The tests came back negative and were done as a precaution after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that eight big cats at the Bronz Zoo in New York had the disease.
This story was originally published June 29, 2020 at 9:18 AM.
