Presumptive positive COVID-19 case in Florida Keys is in exclusive gated community
The board of directors of the exclusive Key Largo gated community of Ocean Reef told members Friday that the woman who is the first person in the Florida Keys to test presumptive positive for the novel coronavirus is a resident.
In a message to members on Ocean Reef Club’s website, the board of directors said the community’s Buccaneer Island, where its beach, pool, some bars and aquatic sports rentals are located, is closed effective immediately “out of an abundance of caution.”
“We will remove all lounge chairs and towels as part of the closure,” the board members wrote.
The Florida Department of Health announced Friday that a 72-year-old Monroe County woman tested presumptive positive for COVID-19, the disease that the novel coronavirus causes, and she likely contracted the virus on a trip to the United Kingdom.
“This individual is isolated at her home and will continue to remain isolated until cleared by the Department. She is expected to make a full recovery,” Alison Morales Kerr, the Department of Health in Monroe County spokeswoman, said in a statement.
There are no other confirmed or presumptive positive cases in the Keys, Kerr said.
Although the Department of Health received a presumptive positive lab report that the woman was infected with COVID-19, the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention has not yet confirmed the case. Kerr said the CDC sometimes takes more than a week to confirm cases.
Neither Ocean Reef’s public relations office nor its board of directors immediately responded to requests for comment on the case, so it is not clear if other community members traveled to and from the United Kingdom with the woman.
The health department announced the case the day after Monroe County announced it was closing all hotels and lodgings in the Keys starting Sunday, and that hotels and short-term rentals could no longer accept reservations, a huge economic blow to the rest of the busy winter tourist season.
As of Saturday evening, 46 people in the Keys have been tested for COVID-19. Of those, 23 tests came back negative, 22 are pending and one, the Upper Keys case, is presumptive positive, according to the Department of Health.
In the state, 658 people have tested positive so far out of 1,072 tested. There have been 12 deaths in the state connected with the disease, according to the health department.
