MIAMI (WSVN) - Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have considered Florida to be at low risk for the coronavirus, South Florida officials are not taking any chances.
Schools and hospitals are undergoing intensive preparations for when the coronavirus does hit the state, especially Miami-Dade County.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez, along with EMA officials, Port of Miami representatives, hospital representatives and Miami International Airport representatives gathered in Downtown Miami to address the media about the coronavirus, saying that they have plans in place should the virus be detected in the county.
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“There are no cases of this disease in the state of Florida,” Gimenez said. “Our goal is to always be the best prepared county in the nation.”
Gimenez said that the coronavirus is being treated like the flu since there haven’t been any cases in Florida, let alone Miami-Dade County, so citizens are being advised to adhere to best hygiene practices, such as hand washing and wiping down work spaces with anti-bacterial wipes, to avoid getting sick or spreading the virus.
“We already have free hand sanitizers on the Metrorail and at the airport, and we’re installing them in other locations around Miami-Dade County,” he said.
The Port of Miami’s main concern is people who have traveled to places affected by the coronavirus, such as China. They will not be allowed to board a ship without proper screenings.
The MSC cruise ship that was banned from docking in Grand Cayman and Jamaica because of fears of a virus outbreak on board will still dock in Miami over the weekend because experts determined that the person on board had the flu, not the coronavirus.
“Having been to China, let’s say, within 14 days, you are not allowed to board that vessel,” Port of Miami spokesperson Juan Kuryla said.
MIA officials said they’re screening for the virus but only doing advanced screenings for people coming from China and not from countries like Brazil or Italy, which have seen cases of the virus.
“For this particular case, China is the only country that there is an immediate exclusion, where we will remove passengers before they depart from an originating outside country before they get to the United States,” MIA spokesperson Lester Sola said.
The only hurdle Miami-Dade County has in determining the presence of the virus is testing kits that don’t have a reagent that can detect the virus. The kits are being sent to the CDC in Atlanta to be tested, which can take days to get results instead of hours.
“Once we get them here in Miami, that should be cut down to less than a day,” Gimenez said, “because the two days right now — it’s a transport up and all the handling — that’s why it takes two days. Once we get the testing kits here in Miami, that could be cut down to five or six hours, so that could be reduced by a lot.”
Hospitals around South Florida are also preparing for a possible outbreak.
At Mount Sinai Medical Center, healthcare workers have been preparing for months and working on additional training.
“Once we first heard of the coronavirus outbreak, we started looking at our supply chain and started to look at what we needed for supplies,” David Farcy, a doctor at the hospital, said.
Healthcare workers at North Shore Medical Center plan on using isolation rooms to prevent the illness from spreading.
“We have appropriate masks, appropriate cleaning devices and appropriate rooms such as this,” Joseph Flagge, a doctor at the hospital, said.
At Jackson Memorial Hospital, healthcare workers are screening patients, and they are asking them if they have had any flu-like symptoms.
“As well as, ‘Have you been out of the country to certain countries?’” Jackson Health System COO Don Steigman said.
Gimenez is expressing transparency, saying that if someone does contract the virus in Miami-Dade County, the public will be the first to know.
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