This post will be updated today, Wednesday, June 24, and through the week 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 articleon where kids and families can get food while schools are closed, and this postabout whether and where to get tested for 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
Key West To Consider Mask Ordinance On Friday
Updated at 3:35 p.m.
The city of Key West is holding a special meeting Friday morning to consider a mask ordinance that is tougher than Monroe County's.
The proposed rules would require people to carry face coverings with them any time they leave their home, and wear them when they're within six feet of other people.
Those are recommendations, not requirements, under the ordinance Monroe County approved last week.
The city would also require people to wear masks when on the premises of all businesses, including bars and restaurants, except when they are seated and eating or drinking. The county's ordinance does not require bar patrons to be seated.
And the city's proposed ordinance allows for criminal penalties, which the county's does not.
The meeting, which will be conducted virtually, is scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday. The agenda and instructions for participating can be found on the city website.
And as city leaders consider these restrictions, two restaurants in Key West have temporarily closed this week after employees tested positive for COVID-19.
-Nancy Klingener/WLRN
Florida Travelers To New York, New Jersey And Connecticut Required To Quarantine For 14 Days
Updated Wednesday at 12:40 p.m.
Florida travelers to New York, New Jersey and Connecticut will have to quarantine for 14 days, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday.
The “advisory” targets people traveling from states that have high coronavirus infection rates. The other states Cuomo named include Alabama, Arkansas, North Carolina, Texas and Utah. They were singled out as states that have 10 people per 100,000 citizens who have tested positive for the virus on a “rolling seven-day basis,” according to Cuomo.
“People coming in ... must quarantine for 14 days and we have a calibration for the infection rates,” he said. “Any state over the rate would be subject to a quarantine.”
Read more at our news partner, the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
— David Lyons/Sun Sentinel
Statewide Coronavirus Cases Surpass 109,000, Hit New Single-Day Case Record
Updated Wednesday at 11:40 a.m.
Florida surpassed 109,000 positive cases of COVID-19 as Florida’s Department of Health confirmed an additional 5,511 cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday. Florida has a total of 109,014 confirmed positive cases, according to the state's health department.
Wednesday's update also included the announcement of 43 new deaths, increasing the statewide number to 3,281. Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties make up 1,786 of those deaths. Monroe County has reported four deaths due to COVID-19.
-WLRN News
Inmate Deaths Up To 21
Updated Wedenesday at 7:30 a.m.
The number of Florida inmates who have died from COVID-19 has climbed to 21, while nearly 1,800 prisoners have tested positive for the disease, the Florida Department of Corrections reported on Tuesday.
It was not immediately known which prison housed the 21st inmate to die from complications of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus. The Florida Department of Health each Wednesday discloses the prisons where inmates have died. The most up-to-date information showed 19 inmates had died at eight prisons, including seven at Blackwater River Correctional Facility, three at Sumter Correctional Institution and two each at Dade Correctional Institution, Everglades Correctional Institution and Union Correctional Institution.
Corrections officials on Tuesday reported that 1,798 inmates and 375 corrections workers had tested positive for COVID-19.
News Service of Florida
