This post will be updated today, Thursday, May 7, with the latest information on COVID-19 in South Florida.
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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.
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QUICK UPDATES
Statewide Coronavirus Cases Hit 38,800, Death Toll Reaches 1,600
Updated Thursday at 3:30 p.m.
The state has more than 38,800 positive cases of COVID-19 as Florida’s Department of Health confirmed an additional 826 cases of COVID-19 on Thursday afternoon. Florida has a total of 38,828 confirmed cases.
Thursday's update also included the announcement of 61 new deaths, increasing the statewide number to 1,600. Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties make up 906 of those reported deaths. Monroe County has reported three deaths due to COVID-19.
-WLRN News
Top Medical Examiner Calls Florida's List Of COVID-19 Deaths A Sham
Updated Thursday at 10 a.m.
Acting under intense pressure from a coalition of Florida news organizations and open-government advocates, the state Wednesday evening released a list of every Florida fatality documented by a medical examiner resulting from the coronavirus pandemic.
The information was so riddled with holes, however, that it sparked as many questions as answers.
Missing from the data set were the names of those who have perished from COVID-19, the illness caused by coronavirus infections, the probable cause of death (there can be multiple factors) and the circumstances of the person’s demise.
Read more at our news partner the Miami Herald.
-Carol Marbin Miller, Sarah Blaskey, Nicholas Nehamas, Mary Ellen Klas, Ben Wieder / Miami Herald
Two Who Died At Florida Keys Nursing Home Test Negative For COVID-19
Updated Thursday at 6:30 a.m.
Two women who died at a Florida Keys nursing home where an employee tested positive for the novel coronavirus last week received negative results for the disease Wednesday, according to the Florida Department of Health.
Nevertheless, the state is still waiting on results from 150 employees at the facility who were tested by a multi-agency emergency response team over the weekend, said Bob Eadie, administrator for the Department of Health in Monroe County.
Late last week, a speech pathologist at the Crystal Health and Rehab Center on Plantation Key received a positive COVID-19 result, and health officials worried because that coincided with the deaths of the two women, ages 87 and 101.
Read more at our news partner the Miami Herald.
-David Goodhue / Miami Herald
