A health care worker signs people up for testing at a Covid-19 testing site in Florida. | (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Four people at the Florida Emergency Operations Center have tested positive for Covid-19 this week and the facility has been closed until Monday for cleaning, Division of Emergency Management Director Jared Moskowitz said.
The Emergency Operations Center has served as the nucleus of Florida's response to the coronavirus pandemic. The facility allows dozens of representatives from various state agencies to work under one roof.
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Moskowitz said 12 people have tested positive since the state Division of Emergency Management began testing three weeks ago. There is no evidence of the virus spreading among the offices reserved for each agency.
"The people who have tested positive don't near each other, they're from separate agencies," Moskowitz said in an interview. "This is spread from the community and the only reason we know it is because we've been testing."
DEM has been testing employees twice a week for several weeks, and a mandatory mask order was issued three weeks ago. The division, which is an extension of the governor's office, has also been screening people before they enter the facility since February, Moskowitz said.
"Obviously the people who test positive get isolated, and then we retest them," Moskowitz said. "And then we're continuing to clean the building."
Employees assigned to DEM are also allowed to work from home. After the four most recent positive test results, the complex, which is about six miles from the state Capitol, has been shut down until Monday.
Moskowitz said he has not tested positive for the virus, nor has his executive staff. Employees at the EOC work closely together during disasters such as a hurricane, but many of the agencies were spread out over the past few months for social distancing. By Monday, returning employees will be given even more space, Moskowitz said.
A state Department of Health report released Thursday showed 4,677 people have died from the coronavirus since the first positive test results surfaced in early March. The state reported 13,837 people tested positive for the virus for the first time on Wednesday, nearly 13 percent of 106,932 total results from people tested for the first time.
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