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A man who went on a cruise in Egypt has tested positive for COVID-19 in Seminole County, the Florida Department of Health announced Thursday afternoon.
This is the first case in Florida to be confirmed by a private lab. Advent Health, in Altamonte Springs, performed the test.
The 68-year-old man is a “travel-related” case and is linked to a Nile River cruise tour in Egypt, according to the department. He is in isolation.
A travel advisory is in place for anyone who traveled to Egypt for a cruise or tour on the Nile River in February or March. Anyone who took a cruise or a tour on the Nile River during that stretch is asked to self-isolate for 14 days following their return to the United States.
This brings the state total of cases to 27, seven of which are in Broward County and one in Miami-Dade.
This breaking news article will be updated as more information becomes available.
Michelle Marchante covers the pulse of healthcare in South Florida and also the City of Coral Gables. Before that, she covered the COVID-19 pandemic, hurricanes, crime, education, entertainment and other topics in South Florida for the Herald as a breaking news reporter. She recently won first place in the health reporting category in the 2025 Sunshine State Awards for her coverage of Steward Health’s bankruptcy. An investigative series about the abrupt closure of a Miami heart transplant program led Michelle and her colleagues to be recognized as finalists in two 2024 Florida Sunshine State Award categories. She also won second place in the 73rd annual Green Eyeshade Awards for her consumer-focused healthcare stories and was part of the team of reporters who won a 2022 Pulitzer Prize for the Miami Herald’s breaking news coverage of the Surfside building collapse. Michelle graduated with honors from Florida International University and was a 2025 National Press Foundation Covering Workplace Mental Health fellow and a 2020-2021 Poynter-Koch Media & Journalism fellow. Support my work with a digital subscription
