|
Article Courtesy of The Palm
Beach Post
By Sonja Isger
Published March 24, 2020
|
An
88-year-old man became the first person to die from the coronavirus in Palm
Beach County, as the number of confirmed cases across Florida rose to 1,007, the
state health department reported Sunday.
|
In addition, the
county saw 16 new cases in the span of a day, bringing the
total confirmed reports of the respiratory illness without
treatment or cure to 72 — a number nearly double what it was
three days earlier.
With the county’s fatality, the death toll statewide rose to
13.
The region from Palm Beach County south to Miami-Dade County
has become the state’s epicenter for coronavirus, with more
than half of the state’s confirmed cases of COVID-19, the
respiratory disease that is sweeping the globe.
The man who died had been the oldest confirmed case in the
Palm Beach County. A 6-year-old girl remains the youngest,
and an 84-year-old man is now the oldest still battling the
illness.
The near-doubling of confirmed COVID-19 cases from Friday to
Sunday in Palm Beach County echoed the jump in cases across
Florida.
And those totals are certain to grow even as Gov. Ron
DeSantis and local leaders move to get more people tested
and curb public gatherings where the virus would be sure to
spread.
“Some of that is to be expected. Florida is testing more
people today than they were before,” DeSantis said from the
parking lot of the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, where
one of the state’s latest testing sites opened to first
responders Sunday and will expand services to the public
Monday. The
state counted not quite 6,300 tests administered as of
Friday. That number hit 11,200 by Sunday evening. The rate
of positives remained rather steady in those three days,
hovering close to 9 percent.
In Broward County, 217 people are
infected, up from 164 Saturday night. And in Miami-Dade
County, infected patients rose to 227 from 169. |
|
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, , right, speaks during a
news conference alongside Lt. Governor Jeanette Nunez, center, and
Jared Moskowitz, Director of Florida’s Division of Emergency
Management, Sunday, March 22, 2020, at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami
Gardens, Fla. DeSantis spoke at the stadium where the National Guard
opened a coronavirus drive-thru testing site. On Sunday, they were
only testing first responders. On Monday, they planned to expand it
to people at least 65 years old who are showing symptoms of the
illness.
|
Besides announcing efforts across the state to test those most at risk to
exposure from the disease, DeSantis said the state is bracing for what comes
next: growing hospitalizations.
DeSantis said Florida has 18,131 available beds statewide. It has 1,700 beds
in intensive-care units. And about a third of the state’s hospitals have at
least half of their space available.
The state is building a field hospital in Broward County and plans another
in Miami-Dade, each with capacity for 250 people. Officials are also eyeing
what the governor described as six vacant medical facilities.
The state received 300,000 of the higher, medical grade N95 face masks
Saturday and will give health-care workers and first responders priority in
distributing them, said Jared Moskowitz, director of the Florida Division of
Emergency Management.
Moskowitz said he expects 2 million more to arrive in the next week, and
they will distributed further to those in need, including workers in nursing
homes.
The last week has been a blur of closures across the state, seeking to stem
the spread of the virus by pulling the plug on places where people gather
and where the contagion could easily spread.
By various edicts from state agencies and the governor, schools have closed.
So too have movie theaters, malls, bowling alleys and some beaches. Sit-down
restaurants have shuttered dining rooms, but take-out or delivery still is
an option at some establishments.
Drive-in church service has become a thing. United Methodist churches in
Jupiter and West Palm Beach conducted such services Sunday morning.
On Sunday, the county closed another congregating loophole: recreational
boating. After it became clear that people were snubbing the constricts of
social-distancing by gathering on boats and in the shallows of the
Intracoastal Waterway, county authorities issued an order closing all boat
ramps and marinas.
St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach also elevated restrictions,
announcing that starting Monday, it would no longer allow visitors in its
facilities. Instead it advised families to connect with those in the
hospital’s care via their phones and electronic tablets.
“We take these proactive precautions to protect our patients, team members,
and the communities we serve,” St. Mary’s Chief Administrative Officer
Cynthia McCauley said in a statement issued Sunday.
“We are sensitive to the separation this restriction causes our patients and
their loved ones, but we believe this measure of protection is essential at
this time to keep people safe,” McCauley wrote.
The move is similar to restrictions the state put into place for places that
house the elderly. The department of health notes 25 cases of the disease in
long-term care facilities as of Saturday morning, but none of those 25 are
in Palm Beach County.
The state reports 402 tests in Palm Beach County came back negative and 15
are pending. It continues to investigate 489 patients, ages 1 to 104.
Meanwhile, the airways filled with grim accounts of countries across the
globe battling a scourge that has created more severely sick patients than
there are hospital beds and ventilators to care for them.
Globally, the number of confirmed cases is 329,000, with more than 14,300
deaths
In the U.S., where the number of cases tops 32,600, with 402 deaths, health
professionals give bleak accounts of their dwindling personal-protection
supplies.
The virus already is among Palm Beach County residents.
The homeowners association at Valencia Falls, a 705-home retirement
community west of Delray Beach, alerted residents last week that someone in
the community has tested positive for the virus, three residents who had
seen the email told The Palm Beach Post on Saturday.
In Palm Beach Gardens, three more firefighters were quarantined after moving
an accident victim March 10 who later tested positive. The city previously
quarantined six other firefighters. As of Friday, nearly a week after their
potential exposure, the six still didn’t know whether they’d contracted it.
Three residents of the town of Palm Beach have been confirmed with the
virus.
Others in Palm Beach County include the 6-year-old student, who attends Del
Prado Elementary School west of Boca Raton; a member of the Hunters Run
Country Club in suburban Boynton Beach; a resident of Majestic Isles west of
Boynton Beach; and a patient of the VA Medical Center in Riviera Beach who
is quarantined at home.
On the Treasure Coast, St. Lucie County reported its first case Saturday,
becoming the 41st county in the state with an infection. It now has three.
Martin County has two cases and Indian River County has eight.
|
