Early voting began today in Florida. There are usually lines on the first day because people are excited; elections supervisors expect to see that (despite the rain in South Florida). A thread:
Stay-at-home orders have nearly halted travel for most Americans, but people in Florida, the Southeast and other places that waited to enact such orders have continued to travel widely, potentially exposing more people as the outbreak accelerates. nytimes.com/interactive/20…
A half-dozen of the most populous counties where residents were traveling widely last week are in Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis resisted calling for a statewide lockdown until Wednesday. nytimes.com/interactive/20…
Sheriff Chad Chronister of Hillsborough County, Fla., says he has obtained an arrest warrant for Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne of The River at Tampa Bay Church for holding large services and "intentionally and repeatedly" disregarding orders to avoid large gatherings.
"His reckless disregard for human life put hundreds of people in his congregation at risk and thousands of residents who may interact with them this week in danger," Chronister says.
Chronister says the authorities advised the church's lawyers that they would be endangering people by violating social distancing and stay at home orders. The sheriff sent members of his command staff to the church to convey the same message but the pastor refused to meet them.
Florida @GovRonDeSantis bans all visitation to all nursing homes and similar facilities for seniors in Broward County for the next 30 days. The state has counted 11 positive coronavirus cases in Broward so far.
Florida has received 1,000 of 2,500 commercial coronavirus testing kits it has ordered, DeSantis says.
They will be distributed to hospitals based on highest need starting in Broward County, DeSantis says.
Gov. @wandavazquezg of Puerto Rico says a Panamanian man with coronavirus started feeling sick and feverish over the weekend while he was in Puerto Rico. He went to a dance at the Sheraton hotel in San Juan and to a big national salsa concert on Sunday.
The man is back in Panama. The governor of Puerto Rico, citing CDC recommendations, is asking people who sat in the rows near where the man sat at the salsa concert to self-isolate as a precautionary measure.
Puerto Rico still has not received results back from the CDC for five tests it has conducted for people on the island with suspected coronavirus.
COVID-19 has arrived in Florida: two presumptive positive cases, in Manatee and Hillsborough counties, per @GovRonDeSantis, who has declared a public health emergency.
@GovRonDeSantis The Florida Department of Health said in a statement that the Manatee County patient is an adult without a travel history to the countries restricted by the C.D.C. The Hillsborough County patient had traveled to Italy. Both patients are in isolation.
@GovRonDeSantis .@GovRonDeSantis has scheduled two press conferences with the Florida surgeon general for Monday, one in Tampa and one in Miami, following the news that the state has identified two cases of COVID-19.