Man confirmed positive in New York traveled to Miami.
State officials on Tuesday said a third person in Florida tested positive for the strain of coronavirus wrecking havoc across the globe.
Separate from that case, state officials learned that the first infected person from New York recently visited Miami, opening a real possibility that the strain has finally landed in South Florida.
>>Coronavirus: What Palm Beach County residents need to know
Governor Ron DeSantis’ spokeswoman said the person who is the confirmed third case lived with one of the confirmed patients. The patient is reportedly the sister of the woman in her 20s who previously tested positive in Hillsborough County.
Florida considers the new case presumptively positive based on testing at one of the state’s three labs. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta must still confirm the finding.
The CDC did confirm on Monday that two people had been infected with the novel coronavirus out of China: the Hillsbourgh woman in her 20s who traveled to northern Italy and a Manatee man in his 60s.
The Associated Press reported that an absence of a clear protocol for sharing information between states seemed to become more apparent Tuesday.
A 50-year-old man from New Rochelle, N.Y., diagnosed with COVID-19 had recently traveled to Miami. Florida officials learned of the man through news reports.
The man had no known travel history to countries where the outbreak of the new coronavirus has been sustained.
Officials said the man was diagnosed Monday at a city hospital after initially seeking treatment at a hospital in suburban Bronxville.
Florida officials said they learned about the case through the news media.
This story will be updated.
@jpacenti
