The Florida Department of Health would like residents to be prepared and protect yourself and our community from the coronavirus, also known as COVID-19.
They are encouraging everyone to wash their hands often with soap and water for a minimum of 20 seconds, especially before eating, after going to the restroom, coughing, sneezing, or blowing your nose.
When water and soap and are not available, it is best to use hand sanitizer with an alcohol-base that has a minimum of 60% alcohol.
They are asking that everyone stay home when they are sick and avoid close contact with anyone under the weather.
Symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, cough, and shortness of breath.
Based on what they have previously seen as the incubation period of MERS-CoV Viruses, the Center for Disease Control believes that symptoms of the coronavirus may appear in as little as 2 days, or up to as many as 14 days after exposure.
Governor Ron DeSantis addressed concerns about Florida not being able to test for the virus locally.
“We’ve been able to manage it. Everything goes to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and back, but to the extent that this becomes a bigger problem, we want to be able to do local testing, and I know they’re working on that,” DeSantis said.
The CDC says 150 of 700 people who recently returned from China are currently still being monitored in Florida. Fifteen have tested negative, and four are under investigation.
