Coronavirus live updates: Here’s what to know in South Florida on July 1
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.
The COVID-19 case bounce has changed the date and place of the Florida Bar exam
4:55 p.m.: Prospective attorneys won’t have to travel or risk being part of Florida’s recent COVID-19 case jump to pass the Florida Bar. This year’s Florida Bar exam will be online.
The Supreme Court of Florida on Wednesday announced approval of the Florida Board of Bar Examiners move.
Instead of July 28 and 29 in Tampa and Orlando (the split in venues a nod to the novel coronavirus pandemic), the test will be given Aug. 18, 2020. It will be 100 multiple-choice questions and three essay questions.
Read the full story here.
Staff infections grow at Miami-Dade foster group home
3:45 p.m.: A total of 20 staff members and eight children at His House Children’s Home have tested positive for COVID-19 as of last Friday, a more than two-fold increase in the number of coronavirus infections in employees in about two weeks.
The foster group home near Miami Gardens, the largest of its kind in Florida, is currently housing 52 children, all of whom have been tested at least once in the past month. According to Esther Jacobo — director of Citrus Family Care Network, which oversees foster care programs in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties — 13 children have tested positive for COVID-19 at His House altogether, but five have since recovered.
None have been hospitalized.
Jacobo said the children, seven boys and one girl, are being isolated in two separate cottages. Staff are self-quarantined at home.
The Department of Children and Families said in June that two more children had tested positive at Press Forward, a foster care facility in Central Florida.
Miami’s public hospital is once again halting non-urgent surgeries due to COVID spike
1:30 p.m.: Slammed with a surge of COVID patients, Miami’s Jackson Health System announced on Tuesday it would be limiting non-emergency surgeries starting next week.
The decision, effective Monday, follows a two-week period in which the number of COVID patients at the public hospital network and in the ICUs has doubled, according to Carlos Migoya, Jackson Health’s CEO. As of Monday, the hospital system had about 265 COVID patients — roughly 80 of them in the ICU.
The rise in patients has also prompted hospital leaders to advertise for 78 additional nurses, Migoya told the Miami-Dade Commission during a meeting on the pandemic Tuesday. He said they’ve already filled about half of those positions.
“Are we having a challenge staffing? Absolutely,” Migoya said. “We’re working very diligently with the union in adding shifts.”
Read the full story here.
Goodwill’s first July 4th sale spurred by record donations during the pandemic
12:15 p.m.: Goodwill South Florida is having a 50%-off Independence Day sale at its stores from Friday through Sunday — a first for the chain.
The sale applies to all items in the store excluding new goods.
The reason? Goodwill has been flush with donations during the coronavirus pandemic and its resulting quarantine. The company hopes to use to proceeds to further support its training and hiring programs. Traditionally, Goodwill employs people with disabilities and other work barriers.
“Many households chose to use their time in quarantine to perform a deep spring cleaning of their homes, which prompted a large amount of much appreciated donations to Goodwill,” David Landsberg, CEO of Goodwill South Florida, said in a statement.
“These donations have caused an overstock in our stores and warehouses, so we thought an Independence Day sale would be a perfect opportunity to sell a large amount of those goods and use the funds to help our non-profit recover from the financial hardship caused by the pandemic and revamp some of the much needed training and hiring programs we offer,” said Landsberg, a former Miami Herald publisher.
The sale will be available in all 33 of its South Florida retail stores from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday-Saturday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.
Don’t forget you have to wear a mask in the store at all times and maintain a six-foot distance from fellow customers.
Miami-Dade coronavirus deaths hit 1,000 as Florida adds more than 6,500 new cases
11:35 a.m.: Florida’s Department of Health on Wednesday announced 6,563 additional cases of COVID-19 and 45 new deaths as the state moves into its fifth month of the pandemic.
Florida now has a total of 158,997 confirmed cases and 3,550 deaths. Nine of the new deaths were in Miami-Dade County, bringing the county’s death toll to 1,000.
Read the full story here.
More than 7,000 kids have tested positive for coronavirus in Florida. 12 have MIS-C
11:30 a.m.: Two teenagers have died from COVID-19-related complications in Florida last month and more than 7,000 other children under 18 have tested positive for the disease since the pandemic began in March, according to Florida’s Department of Health.
The numbers are a stark reminder that kids and young adults are not immune to the disease.
Of the kids who tested positive, 2,865 were in South Florida.
“Just because they look well, doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t have the disease,” said Dr. Marcos Mestre, the senior medical director of pediatric services at Nicklaus Children Hospital near South Miami.
Children are not at higher risk for COVID-19 than adults, but they can still fall ill with the disease and require hospitalization if the condition worsens, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
They may also be at risk of falling ill with multi-system inflammatory syndrome, a rare and serious, sometimes deadly, inflammatory disorder believed to be linked to COVID-19, according to the CDC.
Miami-Dade’s COVID rules allow lap dances?! Mayor said he didn’t know. He’s banning them
10:30 a.m.: The saga of Miami lap dances during the coronavirus pandemic took another turn late Tuesday night when the county mayor whose administration has allowed the close-contact performances said he didn’t know they were still happening.
Mayor Carlos Gimenez “was unaware that lap dances were authorized at some adult entertainment venues,” Deputy Mayor Jennifer Moon said by text shortly before 10:30 p.m. “They will be prohibited henceforth.”
Oddly, it was mistaken media reports earlier in the day announcing a new county ban on lap dances that prompted the actual ban late at night.
Miami-Dade restaurants must close dining areas after midnight, mayor says
10 a.m.: With the number of coronavirus cases surpassing 35,000 on Monday in Miami-Dade County on Monday, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez announced late Tuesday he would sign a measure that would close all on-site dining from 12:01 a.m. to 6 a.m. daily at restaurants with seating for more than eight people.
The amendment to the county’s emergency order will go into effect at 11:59 p.m. Wednesday and will continue indefinitely.
Under pressure, Florida will start reporting how many people hospitalized with COVID
9:40 a.m.: As hospital admissions for COVID-19 soar in Miami-Dade and more patients entering hospitals for other healthcare needs test positive for the virus, the governor’s office said Tuesday that the state will start reporting current hospitalization numbers for all counties this week.
Miami-Dade County has released those numbers publicly for several months, but the state hadn’t been doing the same.
The number of people entering hospitals per day for COVID-19 is a key piece of information that public health experts monitor to measure the severity of the disease’s resurgence and the potential strain on hospital systems.
Florida has been an outlier among states in not reporting the number of patients currently hospitalized with COVID-19. Instead, the state Department of Health has been reporting the total number of patients admitted to hospitals during the course of the pandemic. The Agency for Health Care Administration, meanwhile, reports a different figure: daily hospital bed capacity.
As cases surged in recent weeks, public health experts and the nonprofit COVID Tracking Project, a volunteer group that has become the most prolific coronavirus data collector in the country, pressured the state to start reporting current hospitalizations, saying the information is a clearer way of assessing how bad the pandemic is getting.
DeSantis extends evictions, foreclosure deadlines to August
9:15 a.m.: Floridians will have a little less to worry about when it comes to foreclosures and evictions.
Late Tuesday night — only hours before his original order was set to expire — Gov. Ron DeSantis extended an executive order that gives residents a later deadline for mortgage foreclosures and evictions. The new deadline will be 12:01 a.m. Aug. 1, according to the order.
CATCH UP TO START THE DAY
9:10 a.m.: Here are the coronavirus headlines to catch you up on what’s happening around South Florida and the state as Wednesday begins.
▪ More than 6,000 new coronavirus cases in Florida as the death toll hits 3,500
▪ Islamorada shutting down popular outdoor gathering spots for Fourth of July weekend
▪ Reopening continues in the Caribbean. So does reversal of COVID-19 health protocols
▪ Not wearing a mask can cost you $50 in South Beach under new COVID crackdown
▪ Miami to impose minimum 10-day shutdown for businesses violating COVID-19 regulations
This story was originally published July 1, 2020 at 9:17 AM with the headline "Coronavirus live updates: Here’s what to know in South Florida on July 1."
