Coronavirus live updates: Here’s what to know in South Florida on July 29
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.
Miami-Dade County Public Schools to begin school year online only and later Aug. 31 date
4:45 p.m.: In a long-awaited and much anticipated decision, Miami-Dade County Public Schools will start the school year remotely and at a later date of Aug. 31, school officials announced Wednesday. This is due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis.
The announcement came during a special School Board meeting. All students, regardless of what their parents declared on a recent survey, will begin the school year using a more formal and uniform platform called My School Online.
Read the full story here.
Broward extends its curfew
3:15 p.m.: Broward County Administrator Bertha Henry signed an emergency order Wednesday afternoon to extend the 11 p.m.-5 a.m. curfew a handful more days, through 5 a.m. Monday, Aug. 3.
Norwegian Cruise Line cancels cruises until November, one month past CDC ban
1:35 p.m.: Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings is canceling cruises until November.
The Miami-based company announced it is canceling cruises worldwide through October 31, a full month after the ban on cruises put in place by the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention expires.
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings is the world’s third largest cruise company and owner of three cruise lines: Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises. The announcement comes as Florida is experiencing a surge in COVID-19 infections and deaths.
Read the full story here.
Counties enforce COVID-19 restrictions on Florida’s lobster miniseason
Noon: The lobsters may be one of the few creatures to be thankful for COVID-19.
That’s because a few more of them may escape from our clutches during Wednesday and Thursday’s popular lobster miniseason given some new rules Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe counties have put in place due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Read the full story here.
Florida hit with 216 coronavirus deaths, breaking a record for the second day in a row
11:35 a.m.: Florida’s Department of Health on Wednesday confirmed 9,446 additional cases of COVID-19, bringing the state’s known total to 451,423. There were also 216 Florida resident deaths announced, setting another fatality record in the state for the second day in a row.
The statewide resident death toll is now at 6,333.
Read the full story here.
Miami sex workers were already living at the margins. COVID-19 made it worse
10:25 a.m.: For Miami-based sex worker Ailiyah, and for the estimated hundreds of thousands of other people in the U.S. who rely on full-service sex work to put food on the table, COVID-19 has emerged as an almost existential threat.
The pandemic has rendered face-to-face contact fraught with risk, dissuading some from working as much as they previously did. It has also chilled demand from clients, as soaring unemployment makes Americans less likely to spend money on services of all kinds.
Read the full story here.
After 2,557 COVID deaths in long-term care, Florida fills vacant nursing home watchdog job
10:15 a.m.: After leaving the position unfilled for 10 months, five of them through a pandemic that has killed 2,557 in Florida long-term care, Florida has hired a new permanent state long-term care ombudsman to advocate for nursing home residents, the Miami Herald has learned.
The job belongs to Michael Phillips, who previously served as the ombudsman program’s regional manager for the district stretching from Pensacola to Jacksonville.
The ombudsman is a federally mandated role that responds to long-term care residents’ needs, lobbies for pro-nursing home resident legislation and is the primary public figure within the state government who represents the vulnerable, aging population.
In the time it took to fill the position, nursing homes and assisted living facilities have been ravaged by COVID-19, taking out as many 52 residents in one facility, and the virus has shown few signs of slowing down.
Read the full story here.
Miami Beach has shut down Airbnb amid COVID. Here’s where you can still book and where you can’t
10 a.m.: With many hotels and motels on the brink of bankruptcy and Airbnbs heavily regulated, legal short-term rental options are running low in Miami-Dade County.
The county reopened hotels and motels on June 1 with new safety measures and restrictions, including mandatory mask-wearing for guests and staff, capacity limits for common areas, and pet, gym and minibar bans.
In July, hotels began to recover from record lows of 10 to 15 percent of their historical occupancy rates in April and early May, climbing to up to 40 percent on the weekend of July 4, according to countywide data by the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau.
But occupancy began plummeting again in mid-July, as Florida’s confirmed COVID-19 cases surged. On July 12, Florida reported 15,300 new confirmed cases, according to the Florida Department of Health — a single-day record in the United States since the pandemic began.
Dozens of hotels were forced to shut down indefinitely, the data shows.
Read the full story here.
New and expanded recalls, ‘toxic’ methanol list additions: a hand sanitizer update
9:30 a.m.: A hand sanitizer company that supplied Walmart, Costco and other stores pulled three brands from the U.S. market. Two other companies recalled hand sanitizer. The FDA’s do-not-use-it-has-methanol list has its first U.S. company.
And the first company on that list got an FDA warning letter saying, in part, stop claiming their hand sanitizer was “FDA Approved.”
Read the full story here.
Caribbean countries watching, preparing for tropical storm amid COVID-19 outbreak
9:25 a.m.: Emergency management officials from Antigua to Puerto Rico to the Bahamas are watching — and preparing — for the potential arrival of Tropical Storm Isaias, a fast-moving storm churning its way west across the Atlantic.
But with the region already frayed by the months-long COVID-19 pandemic, officials also found themselves in uncharted waters. At issue is how to respond to any potential threat posed by a hurricane or tropical storm while limiting exposure to the deadly virus that has already infected more than 100,000 people in the Caribbean basin and left more than 1,200 dead.
“It’s a very complicated scenario. We have a lot of variables to take into account that have been added to our regular workload,” said Jerry Chandler, the head of Haiti’s Civil Protection office. “We’re taking necessary measures but we are also having to play it by ear, depending on what pans out, and see how we address and adapt.”
Read the full story here.
CATCH UP TO START THE DAY
9:20 a.m.: Here are the coronavirus headlines to catch you up on what’s happening around South Florida and the state as Wednesday begins.
▪ Once on New York’s COVID front line, nurses flock to Florida to provide reinforcement
▪ Florida to discuss ideas about how bars might reopen. South Florida is different
▪ Florida hits new record with 186 coronavirus deaths, pushing the toll past 6,000
▪ Professors at Florida’s 12 state universities, plus MDC, want remote-only courses in fall
This story was originally published July 29, 2020 at 9:23 AM with the headline "Coronavirus live updates: Here’s what to know in South Florida on July 29."
