The Florida surgeon general said Friday that four people are being tested for the virus but there are no confirmed cases in the state.
Officials test 4 people with symptoms of coronavirus, but none confirmed
The Florida surgeon general on Friday said health officials are testing four people with symptoms of the new coronavirus, the first time Florida officials have confirmed testing of suspected cases in the state.
At a news briefing in Palm Beach County Friday, Surgeon General Scott Rivkees said there are no confirmed cases in Florida at this time. The four people, who came from restricted travel areas, are awaiting test results. Another 152 people are being monitored at home; they have no symptoms but came from restricted travel areas or had contact with someone who was infected.
The announcement came as Florida gears up to begin in-state testing at three health labs as soon as next week. Those labs are in Miami, Tampa and Jacksonville.
Until now, tests have been sent to a lab in Atlanta, a slow process that could create a major backlog if Florida faced a surge of cases. When the in-state labs begin testing, results should be available within 48 hours — far faster than the four to six days it had taken to get results from Atlanta.
Until Friday, Florida’s Department of Health had been reluctant to confirm pending or unconfirmed tests, even as Florida Senators had put pressure on health officials to disclose the number of suspected cases in the state. They disclosed on Friday that 15 people were previously under investigation in Florida, but tested negative for the virus.
With 63 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States, experts have revised faulty test kits previously sent to states and removed the third reagent component that gave inconclusive results, said Nancy Messonnier, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The kits — including those in Florida — now use two reagents, which will work properly and allow states to keep accurate case counts.
The ability to test for the new coronavirus locally comes at a crucial time as the virus has spread to 60 countries including Latin America, an area from which so many tourists come to Florida.
Two weeks ago, Florida health officials were told by the CDC to hold off on using the test kits until questions over their accuracy were resolved.
Alberto Moscoso, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Health, said the agency is validating the test kits at its three labs in Florida.
Originally, the CDC’s test criteria included only people who had traveled to China or been in close contact with someone known to have the new coronavirus, officially called COVID-19. The agency updated its criteria this week to include the testing of people who have traveled to impacted areas, as well as those with severe symptoms (like pneumonia) who do not have a known source of exposure and aren’t ill with another disease (like the flu).
Messonnier said the criteria for identifying and testing people for COVID-19 has evolved and will continue to do so.
With Florida and other states able to test locally, Messonnier said the ability to diagnose more people faster remains the best way to fight COVID-19, noting that the immediate risk in the U.S. remains low. Last week, Messonnier told Americans to begin to prepare for the possibility of community spread.
Governor Ron DeSantis reiterated Florida’s desire to do local testing during a news briefing with Vice President Mike Pence at Palm Beach International Airport on Friday. “We have been able to manage it. Everything goes to the CDC and back, but to the extent this becomes more of a problem, we want to do local testing.”
DeSantis also told Pence he wants federal help to ensure Florida’s healthcare workers have enough masks, gowns and goggles to protect themselves from the virus should a community see a surge in cases. Another concern, DeSantis said, is the potential loss of income should the state need to ask someone to stay home and avoid contact with others to protect against community spread of the virus.
“Some people live paycheck to paycheck. We have the ability to be able to help with the loss of income, but if the numbers get bigger, having a federal supplemental, having flexibility with that would make a huge difference,” he said.
President Trump appointed Pence on Wednesday to lead the country’s coronavirus response.
“We are going to make sure states like Florida and local health officials have resources to be prepared for any eventuality, and in the event the virus spreads more broadly that states are able to be compensated for your efforts,” Pence told DeSantis.
While Senator Rick Scott, Florida’s former governor, did not attend the meeting between DeSantis and Pence at Palm Beach International Airport, he did express concerns in a letter to the CDC that Florida’s proximity to Latin America puts the state at additional risk for the highly contagious virus. “The first reported cases of the Chinese Coronavirus in Brazil and Mexico are particularly concerning given the rate of travel between these countries and Florida,” Scott wrote. He also urged the CDC to increase its screening for the virus at Florida airports and seaports.
Miami’s airport has a CDC quarantine station where it can screen and isolate anyone suspected of bringing an infectious disease into the country. It is the only airport in the state with a quarantine station.