© 2024 WLRN
MIAMI | SOUTH FLORIDA
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Coronavirus Live Updates: Florida Has Deadliest Day With 72 deaths, 34 In Dade. Surpasses 21,500

David Santiago
/
Miami Herald
A healthcare worker holds a swab tests from citizens at the COVID-19 drive-thru testing center at the Tamiami Park in Miami as the coronavirus pandemic continues on Wednesday, April 8, 2020.

This post will be updated today, Tuesday, April 14, with the latest information on COVID-19 in South Florida.

In these uncertain times, you can rely on WLRN to keep you current on local news and information. Your support is what keeps WLRN strong. Please become a member today. Donate Now. Thank you.

WLRN staff continues to add to community resource lists, including this article on where kids and families can get food while schools are closed, and this post about whether and where to get tested for the coronavirus.

The dedicated website for the Florida Department of Health, including information about symptoms and numbers of cases, can be found here. The dedicated website from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can be found here.

To receive WLRN's coronavirus updates newsletter on Wednesdays and Saturdays, sign up here.

QUICK UPDATES

Florida Has Deadliest Day With 72 deaths, 34 In Miami-Dade. Surpasses 21,500 cases

Tuesday, April 14, updated at 8:10 p.m.

Florida and Miami-Dade saw their deadliest day Tuesday amid the coronavirus pandemic, as 72 more people died statewide and 34 died in the county since Monday evening, state health officials said Tuesday night.

The deaths came as the Florida Department of Health on Tuesday evening reported 609 additional cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, bringing the state total to 21,628 confirmed cases. The state’s death toll rose to 571, a 14 percent increase over Monday night’s death toll of 499. 

Of the 72 new deaths reported Tuesday evening, 49 were in South Florida.

Thirty-four people between the ages of 33 and 95 died in Miami-Dade County, raising the county’s death toll to 143 — the highest in the state. 

According to John Hopkins University of Medicine, Miami-Dade is the 12th county in the country with the most coronavirus cases. Miami-Dade had 7,712 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Tuesday evening, the state health department reported.

Read more at our news partner, the Miami Herald.

— Michelle Marchante and Devoun Cetoute / Miami Herald

Death Toll Surpasses 500 In Florida As Cases Rise To More Than 21,300

Tuesday, April 14, updated at 1:15 p.m.

Florida’s Department of Health on Tuesday morning confirmed 348 additional cases of COVID-19, bringing the state total of known cases to 21,367. There were 25 new deaths reported, raising the statewide death toll to 524.

Eighteen of the new deaths were in South Florida. 

Sixteen people died in Miami-Dade County, raising the county’s death toll to 135 — the highest in the state. Broward reported one new death, raising the county total to 78. Palm Beach County saw one additional death, raising the county total to 93 deaths.

The other deaths were in Bay, Hillsborough, Manatee, Pinellas, Polk and Suwannee counties. 

A death that might be added later to the state’s death toll is 33-year-old Danielle Dicenso, an ICU nurse at Palmetto General Hospital in Hialeah, who died last week from possible COVID-19 complications.

Read more at our news partner, the Miami Herald.

— Michelle Marchante / Miami Herald

Florida Supreme Court To Hear Arguments Remotely

Tuesday, April 14, updated at 11:25 a.m.

TALLAHASSEE — Florida Supreme Court oral arguments typically are dignified affairs in a tradition-filled courtroom across the street from the state Capitol.

But when justices hear arguments May 6, they will use Zoom.

For the first time, the Supreme Court will hold oral arguments using video teleconferencing technology as it tries to help prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, the court announced Tuesday.

The announcement came a day after the U.S. Supreme Court said it would hear arguments by teleconference in May --- and as courts across Florida have adjusted age-old routines because of the pandemic.

The May 6 arguments at the Florida Supreme Court also will focus on legal issues that are not so traditional: a battle about medical-marijuana licensing and a debate about a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow people to use recreational marijuana.

A news release Tuesday from the Supreme Court said justices and attorneys will interact during the hearings by using Zoom teleconferencing software, which has become seemingly ubiquitous in recent weeks as face-to-face meetings have been called off.

“The court clerk’s office will work with attorneys in advance of oral arguments to help them set up their own Zoom connections with the court,” the news release said. “Under this arrangement, each of the justices and the lawyers will be in separate locations that are teleconferenced together for the usual interactive questions and answers of court arguments.”

— News Service of Florida

Keep Social Distancing Until Vaccine Is Ready, Says Florida Surgeon General

Tuesday, April 14, updated 7 a.m.

Floridians should start getting used to keeping their distance and wearing face masks. These guidelines could be the norm for up to a year, or until a COVID-19 vaccine exists, said Florida Surgeon General Scott Rivkees on Monday.    

“As long as we’re going to have COVID in the environment, and this is a tough virus, we’re going to have to practice these measures so that we are all protected,” he said before he was removed from the press conference by the governor's spokeswoman, Helen Aguirre Ferré.

Rivkees' spokesman, Alberto Moscoso, told the Miami Herald he was leaving to attend a prescheduled meeting with DeSantis’ deputy chief of staff, Adrian Lukis.

It's not clear if Governor Ron DeSantis agrees with his advice on keeping social distancing measure for that long. 

Credit MATIAS J. OCNER / Miami Herald
/
Miami Herald
Florida Surgeon General Scott Rivkees speaks to the media about the coronavirus during a press conference on Monday, March 2, 2020, at the Florida Department of Health in Miami-Dade County.

Rivkees' career has been in pediatrics, research and academia --not epidemiology or public health, which made him a controversial choice when DeSantis asked him to lead Florida’s Department of Health last year.

He had not advised the governor on whether a shutdown was necessary or not before the final decision to shutdown the state on April 1, DeSantis' spokeswoman told the Miami Herald.

DeSantis and other leaders across the country have been grappling with the economic costs of the shut downs that health experts have recommended. 

“As a general matter, public health is a type of expertise. Most governors don’t have [that] expertise,” Harvard professor and epidemiologist, Marc Lipsitch told the Miami Herald. “They should seek out the people who do have the expertise, otherwise they’re not getting the best advice.”

-Leslie Ovalle

More On This Topic