Former Broward Sheriff Scott Israel hospitalized after testing positive for COVID-19
Former Broward Sheriff Scott Israel, hospitalized Wednesday after testing positive for COVID-19, vowed to continue his campaign to regain the elected seat he was stripped of more than a year ago by the governor.
Israel, 64, was noticeably “off his game” during a Tuesday night debate on Zoom with Sheriff Gregory Tony and others, according to one person close to the former sheriff. The former sheriff said in a statement that he’d been feeling ill the past few days and went to a hospital in Delray Beach to get tested at the urging of family members.
“Last night I tested positive for COVID-19. I am in a local area hospital for further evaluation. After experiencing symptoms over the past several days and at the urging of family and friends, I decided to take another coronavirus test,” Israel said in the statement released Wednesday on his campaign’s Facebook page. “This time, unfortunately, the test was positive.”
Israel said he caught the infection despite following the advice of health experts, wearing a mask in public and regularly washing his hands. He vowed his campaign would continue.
In the past few weeks South Florida has become one of the epicenters of pandemic. Many hospital intensive care units in South Florida are now at or over capacity. On Sunday the state recorded 15,300 new coronavirus cases, more in a single day than any other state since the pandemic began. So far 2,300 people have died of COVID-19 in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, according to the State Department of Health.
A source familiar with Israel’s campaign said the former sheriff was hospitalized in Delray Beach, either because a close family member works there or because of the lack of available hospital beds in Broward County during the recent statewide surge in COVID-19 infections. The online news website Florida Bulldog’s Twitter account reported it was because of a lack of beds.
The source said after Tuesday night’s Zoom debate from the Plantation Democratic Club, Israel said he wasn’t feeling well and went to the hospital to be tested. Israel also had a fever of around 104 degrees and was diagnosed with pneumonia. He had not kicked the fever by Wednesday afternoon.
“The two debates, he was off,” said the longtime Israel associate. “He couldn’t concentrate and was stuttering. After the debate he said he wasn’t feeling well.”
Israel, the source said, has no underlying health issues and is in good shape and there is no reason not to expect him to recover.
The former sheriff is involved in a heated attempt to regain the elected post that was taken from him in January of 2019, when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis removed him from office after a report by a state-appointed panel blamed him in part for the Valentine’s Day 2018 Parkland tragedy that left 17 students and administrators dead.
Israel failed in attempts through the courts and the state Senate to retain his elected seat as Broward sheriff, who oversees 5,400 personnel in law enforcement, corrections and fire rescue. But he vowed to retain the post he was elected to twice, initially in 2012.
His run for the Democratic primary in August against his successor, Sheriff Gregory Tony, who was appointed by DeSantis, has been nasty. The general election against a Republican challenger is in November.
Tony wished Israel “good health and a speedy recovery” on his Twitter page Wednesday.
“Some things matter more than politics. Scott and his family will be in my thoughts,” the sheriff said.
A longtime associate of Israel’s said the former sheriff had been feeling sick for a couple of weeks and took a coronavirus test at the beginning of the month. The source said Israel never received a result but had been trying to stay distanced from others since then. It was just in the past few days, the source said, that Israel began feeling really ill.
The former sheriff was contacted by the Miami Herald on Tuesday prior to the debate, but he made no mention of feeling ill. None of Israel’s family members had tested positive as of Wednesday afternoon, the source said, but several were being tested. Campaign spokeswoman Amy Rose said no staffers had tested positive as of Wednesday, either.
Also Wednesday, Key Biscayne Police Chief Charles Press announced he had tested positive for COVID-19. The chief, who has been a big proponent of wearing masks, said on Instagram that his symptoms were minimal and he planned to update islanders on his condition during his 14 days of isolation. Press is the current president of the Miami-Dade County Association of Chiefs of Police.
Miami Herald staff writers Samantha Gross and David Smiley contributed to this report.
This story was originally published July 15, 2020 at 12:47 PM.
