Manatee and Sarasota residents among newest coronavirus cases in Florida
Among the latest confirmed cases in Florida of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, are a case involving a Manatee County man and a Sarasota County woman.
The new statistics, along with a new tracking dashboard, were released by the Florida Department of Health just before 1 p.m. Monday. While the dashboard features an interactive map to show the breakdown of cases by county, the patient’s age, gender and travel information is no longer provided for individual cases.
Manatee County now has had a total of five cases of COVID-19, and Sarasota County has had a total of three cases, according to DOH.
Statewide, there have been 160 confirmed cases of COVID-19, which includes six Florida residents who have been diagnosed and are isolated out of state and 18 non-Florida residents diagnosed in Florida. A total of five Florida residents have died from the disease.
Sarasota Memorial announced Monday afternoon that they are now treating a total of four patients who have tested positive for COVID-19 after two more patients tested positive on Sunday. An 87-year-old man admitted on Friday and an 80-year-old man admitted on Saturday are the newest cases.
Late last Thursday, the hospital announced it’s first positive case, a 70-year-old man. The man, a seasonal Sarasota resident from Massachusetts, remains hospitalized as does another patient who tested positive on Friday.
All four patients are in isolation rooms in the hospital, according to spokeswoman Kim Savage.
Manatee County had one of the first cases of COVID-19 reported in Florida, a 63-year-old man, who was diagnosed, treated and released from Doctors Hospital in Sarasota after fully recovering.
That man’s wife is among the two positive cases announced after midnight Saturday morning, according to Manatee County Commissioner Vanessa Baugh, who posted details of the cases on her Facebook page. She is at home but being monitored by the health department.
The other case involves a woman who is being treated at Sarasota Memorial Hospital but expected to be released soon. Her family has been tested and those results were still pending as of Baugh’s post Monday morning.
As of Monday, there had also been one first-responder who has been tested but the result is expected to be negative because that first-responder’s son has the flu, according to Baugh. She did not make public which agency the first-responder works for.
Broward County remains the Florida county with the largest number of cases, with 39 residents testing positive. Miami-Dade County has the second largest number of cases, with 23 residents testing positive.
The latest data released by DOH include tests run by private labs, that joined the efforts last week to test for the new coronavirus. The department’s state labs in Tampa, Miami and Jacksonville could not keep up with demand and were averaging a 48-hour turnaround despite working seven days a week.
The total cases in Florida include 45 cases in which the person traveled, 32 cases in which the person had contact with a confirmed case and 51 cases in which the person traveled and had contact with a confirmed case. The states said that 32 cases remain under investigation to determine how the person contracted the coronavirus.
This story was originally published March 16, 2020 at 1:27 PM.
