Treasure Coast Coronavirus Update Monday March 16 2020
No cases have been confirmed at this time in Indian River, Martin, Okeechobee and St. Lucie counties.
The City of Ft Pierce
The City of Fort Pierce: At this time, there are no confirmed cases of the Coronavirus in Fort Pierce. However, as a preventive measure to reduce the transmission and spread of the Coronavirus, large-scale special events and all performances at the Sunrise Theatre for the Performing Arts and Black Box have been postponed or canceled through April 3, 2020. After careful consideration of the guidelines issued by the Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department of Health, measures are being implemented to protect the public. The following events have been postponed or canceled:
Postponed
Sandy Shoes Seafood & Brew
Canceled
St. Patrick’s Day on 2nd St.
Jazz on Moore’s Creek
Friday Fest
Downtown Farmer’s Market
Jazz Market
Wednesday Green Market
Dancin’ in the Streets
Jazz Week
Restoring the Village Diabetes Walk
Manatee Center 5K
Waterside Blues
Fool’s Day 5K
There is no change in essential city services. As we adapt to the recommendations and restrictions due to the Coronavirus, our citizens are encouraged to take advantage of our online services, email & phone resources. Visit our website at www.cityoffortpierce.com.
For more information about the Sunrise Theatre and Black Box schedule, contact the box office, srtbox@sunrisetheatre.com or 772-461-4775.
The City of Fort Pierce continues to work closely with our community partners to monitor the Coronavirus situation in our community. If the circumstances change, strategies will be adopted and implemented in response to any modified guidelines from health officials. As recommended by the Florida Department of Health, if you think you may have Coronavirus or are showing any symptoms, please call your doctor or local hospital before you visit. For any questions or concerns you may have regarding Coronavirus, the Florida Department of Health has a call center available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 1-866-779-6121.
St Lucie County
St. Lucie Public Schools Child Nutrition Services will be serving meals for students in the community, from 11:00 A.M. – 1:00 P.M., Monday, March 16 through Friday, March 20, 2020 at the following schools:
Chester A. Moore Elementary: 827 N 29th St, Fort Pierce, FL 34947
Northport K8: 250 NW Floresta Dr, Port St. Lucie, FL 34983
Treasure Coast High School: 1000 SW Darwin Blvd, Port Saint Lucie, FL 34953
Child Nutrition Services Managers from across the District will be staffing the open locations.
Meals will be prepped, bagged and brought to the bus loop area which will allow for parents to drive through and pick up meals for their children. Meals will be provided to children in the car 18 years of age and younger. Children must be present in the car to receive meal(s). Child Nutrition Services staff will be handing out the meals, therefore, we ask families to please remain in their cars while in the pickup line. If you have additional questions, please reach out to St. Lucie Public Schools Child Nutrition Services Department at child.nutrition.services@stlucieschools.org.
A more expansive and detailed food plan is in place for the extended spring break week of 3/23 – 3/27. Please visit St. Lucie Public Schools website for updated information at www.stlucieschools.org.
Martin County
After careful consideration and continued conversation with public health experts and officials at the Florida Department of Education, the decision has been made to close all Martin County School District-operated schools effective Monday, March 16 through Friday, March 27, 2020. During this time, we will continue to evaluate expert guidance as it becomes available and make decisions about the reopening of the District with the best interest of our students and employees in mind.
While many programs and activities had been previously canceled or rescheduled, all remaining athletic events, field trips and extracurricular activities have been canceled effective Monday, March 16, 2020. All Extended Day Programs will be closed for the time period of March 16 – March 27, 2020. All “Use of Facilities” agreements for the month of March have been canceled. Notices about activities, programs and events being resumed will be communicated as these decisions are made. This extended break will allow for the District to thoroughly clean and sanitize all of our schools, buses and facilities. During this time, staff will continue to evaluate our districtwide plans for educational continuity.
Food & Nutrition Services has been instructed to continue to make food available to children who rely on our meal programs each day. As this is a rapidly-evolving situation, they are working out details as to how to best serve the community. Additional information will be shared with families as it becomes available.
Please be reminded that the District has a dedicated Coronavirus (COVID-19) webpage at martinschools.org/coronavirusinfo. Families are encouraged to visit this webpage to ensure they continue to receive the latest information as it becomes available. Employees should watch for additional communication about work schedules and return to work from their site supervisor. Students, parents or employees are encouraged to email MCSDNews@martinschools.org with any questions they have about procedures or access to resources.
The health and safety of our students and employees continues to be our top priority. Please continue to follow all recommendations issued by the CDC and Florida Department of Health to help prevent the spread of illness.
The Martin County School District’s Food & Nutrition Services (FNS) Department will serve free meals to children in the Martin County community from 9:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. Monday, March 23 – Friday, March 27, 2020. Meals will be served to children aged 18 and under at the following locations:
J.D. Parker Elementary School – 1010 E. 10th Street, Stuart, FL 34994
Port Salerno Elementary School – 3260 SE Lionel Terrace, Stuart, FL 34997
Warfield Elementary School – 15260 SW 150th Street, Indiantown, FL 34956
FNS managers and staff will be on-site to prepare and distribute breakfasts and lunches, which will be bagged and distributed to families in each school’s car line area. Parents and guardians can drive, bike, or walk to these locations with children. Meals will be provided to anyone present who is 18 years of age or younger.
Hours of operation at each site are subject to change depending on community participation. Additional questions about the meal program should be directed to Food & Nutrition Services at (772) 223-2655.
Indian River
All Indian River County public schools will close for at least two weeks due to concerns over the coronavirus. The school district said all schools, school activities, and athletics will be canceled from Monday, March 16 through Friday, March 27. Indian River County schools are on Spring Break from March 23 to 27.
The Florida Department of Health has announced 25 new positive cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Florida and the death of a Florida resident in California.
The U.S. Department of State advises U.S. citizens to reconsider travel abroad due to the global impact of COVID-19. Many areas throughout the world are now experiencing COVID-19 outbreaks and taking action that may limit traveler mobility, including quarantines and border restrictions. Even countries, jurisdictions, or areas where cases have not been reported may restrict travel without notice.
For more COVID-19 information, Contact:
Joint Information Center on COVID-19 for the State of Florida @ (850) 815-4940 or (email) ESF14@em.myflorida.com
The number of coronavirus cases in Florida continues to rise. The Department of Health is reporting that, statewide, 149 people have tested positive for coronavirus. Four patients have died.
Governor Ron DeSantis says that his administration is working with Memorial Healthcare System in Broward County to set up a drive-through system where certain people can be tested for free.
DeSantis said he’s working with the National Guard to have the mobile-testing operational as soon as possible. Travelers through Florida’s busiest airport should be aware of a new coronavirus case. The TSA says an officer at Orlando International Airport has tested positive for the virus. The 48-year-old Orange County woman got her test results this weekend and has been at home resting since Tuesday.
Florida drivers are beginning to find gas prices below two-dollars a gallon in many markets. According to Triple-A, 11-percent of Florida filling stations have sub-two-dollar gasoline. That number is expected to rise in the coming days. Triple-A says the drop at the pumps is due to the combination of the coronavirus and the ongoing price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia.
The first participant in a clinical trial for a vaccine to protect against the new coronavirus will receive an experimental dose on Monday, according to a government official. The National Institutes of Health is funding the trial, which is taking place at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle. Public health officials say it will take a year to 18 months to fully validate any potential vaccine. Testing will begin with 45 young, healthy volunteers with different doses of shots co-developed by NIH and Moderna Inc. There’s no chance participants could get infected from the shots, because they don’t contain the virus itself. The goal is purely to check that the vaccines show no worrisome side effects, setting the stage for larger tests. Dozens of research groups around the world are racing to create a vaccine as COVID-19 cases continue to grow. Importantly, they’re pursuing different types of vaccines — shots developed from new technologies that not only are faster to produce than traditional inoculations but might prove more potent. Some researchers even aim for temporary vaccines, such as shots that might guard people’s health a month or two at a time while longer-lasting protection is developed.
The Florida Department of Health has announced that a 77-year-old patient from Lee County, who was diagnosed with coronavirus, has died. This is the fourth death of a coronavirus patient from Florida. According to officials, this case wasn’t travel related. Three more cases of coronavirus in Palm Beach County were positively confirmed Friday, among 25 new ones in the state, the Florida Department of Health announced just after midnight Saturday. Of the cases, 18 are associated with South Florida — nine in Broward County and six in Miami-Dade County.
No cases have been confirmed in Indian River, Martin, Okeechobee and St. Lucie counties.
The Florida Department of Health announced early Saturday the third death was a 68-year-old Orange County, Florida, woman who died in California. She tested positive in California after traveling to Asia. In all, 75 cases have been linked to the state, including 67 Florida residents diagnosed in Florida. Eleven new cases are travel-related, including three domestic, 13 are unclear and one is not related to travel.
The White House’s coronavirus task force provided an update on the administration’s response to the pandemic as the number of confirmed cases in the U.S. rose to about 3,000 on Sunday. During brief comments, President Donald Trump praised the Federal Reserve’s decision to slash interest rates to nearly zero, saying he was “very happy.” Trump had pressured the apolitical agency for days to slash interest rates in the hopes of boosting the economy. Trump also addressed the latest information from the CDC, which now confirms that more than 3,000 Americans are confirmed to have contracted the disease, with estimates for those infected much higher. Trump left the podium without taking questions. He did not address his test for COVID-19; the White House said Saturday that Trump had tested negative for the virus, despite the fact that he came into contact with at least two people that have since tested positive for the disease. The vast majority of coronavirus-related deaths have occurred in Washington state, where a number of nursing home patients contracted the disease last month. Forty of the 57 deaths that have been recorded in Washington state. In recent days, Colorado, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, New York and Virginia have all announced their first coronavirus-related deaths.
Most visitors are now banned at Florida nursing homes as the coronavirus has likely spread into the general population. Gov. Ron DeSantis banned on Saturday nursing homes from accepting visitors for 30 days except when a patient is near death. He said three infected Broward County resident have no known source of the disease such as a recent visit to China or Europe, meaning the disease has likely spread into the community. The state’s number of infections passed 60 on Saturday and two people have died in the state. The state also announced that low-income students will still get free and reduced-cost meals while schools are closed.
Officials in Martin County gave an update on their coronavirus efforts Saturday afternoon. According to authorities, there are no confirmed cases of the virus in Martin County. Officials say they’re developing a drive-through test at the Cleveland Clinic Martin North. The tests are only for those experiencing symptoms. Residents have to call 772-419-3360 before getting tested.
The mayor of Miami, Francis Suarez, has tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. The Florida Department of Health said Friday that Suarez has become the second person confirmed to be infected in Miami-Dade County, In a pre-recorded statement, Suarez said he was informed that a member of Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro’s staff had tested positive for the virus. Suarez was in the same room with the president and the infected person, though he said he does not believe he had personal contact with either. Although he said he did not have any symptoms, Suarez followed Department of Health protocols and got tested, as well as self-quarantined. Suarez announced that there has been extensive planning for this scenario, and the city is prepared to have him govern remotely while he recovers.