Monroe County has four COVID-19 cases. But one is not travel-related
Florida Keys health officials Tuesday announced the third and fourth confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Monroe County, including the first one that is not travel-related.
The fourth case, a 48-year-old man listed only as a Monroe County resident, is travel-related, officials said Tuesday at 6 . The man is expected to make a full recovery.
But earlier the state announced the case of a 52-year-old woman in Key West who is isolating at home and expected to make a full recovery, according to the Florida Department of Health in Monroe County spokeswoman Alison Morales Kerr.
“Travel is not associated with the infection,” Kerr said, of the 52-year-old woman’s case. “This case is currently under investigation.”
Health officials though, say the infection likely came from another part of Florida.
“There could easily be an out-of-county link from another area that has the virus,” said Bob Eadie, administrator of the health department in Monroe County. “I think the connection is it came from somewhere else in Florida.”
Eadie added, “The patient has not traveled but has been in close contact with someone who came from another area in Florida where there have been cases of COVID-19 in that area.”
In Monroe County, 78 people have been tested with 50 coming back negative and four positive, as of Tuesday evening. The rest are pending results.
The state’s morning report Tuesday listed the 52-year-old woman’s case as being in Tavernier but health department spokeswoman Alison Morales Kerr said that is incorrect and that, “Tallahassee will correct that in the afternoon report.”
The fourth reported case in the Keys comes at a time when the county has closed to tourists, having shut down hotels on Sunday evening.
On Tuesday evening, county officials announced they will close U. S. 1, the only road into the Keys from mainland Florida, to tourists starting Friday at the latest.
Key West has shuttered nonessential retail businesses and closed its beaches, including Smathers Beach, along with landmarks such as the Southernmost Point buoy.
However, the county has left its beaches and parks open, including Higgs Beach in Key West, with the caveat that people do not gather in groups of 10 or more and practice social distancing. Fishing bridges have closed down and so have all Florida state parks.
“We’ve been clamping down in a pretty significant way,” said Monroe County Mayor Heather Carruthers on Tuesday.
Carruthers in the morning said the county was not going to close down U.S. 1 and she gave a host of reasons that it’s a bad idea.
About 30 percent of first responders live on the mainland and 60 percent of Key properties are owned by people who are not full-time residents, Carruthers said.
Upper Keys residents go to medical appointments on the mainland and workers come down to work in the Keys from South Florida.
A road closure could also delay deliveries of essential goods to the Keys, Carruthers added.
“This is not really a hurricane,” she said, referring to the familiar argument for shutting down the road as is done during hurricane. “People are still living here and they need resources and support.”
This story was originally published March 24, 2020 at 12:46 PM with the headline "Monroe County has four COVID-19 cases. But one is not travel-related."
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