

On Thursday, the Florida Department of Health announced that a ninth Floridian has died from COVID- 19 and the number of positive cases in the state rose to 432.

Health officials are also monitoring 1005 individuals for the novel coronavirus.

Of the 432 cases, 393 are Florida residents and 30 are non-Florida residents.

Hernando County is reporting its first four cases, two of which are travel-related. The cases involve two men and two women.

On Thursday afternoon, Pinellas County voted to close all public beaches and parking beginning on Friday. Sarasota and Manatee Counties also voted to close their beaches before the weekend.

Early Thursday morning, Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister announced he will release 164 low-level, non-violent offenders from county jails to help protect the rest of the jail population and employees from the coronavirus.


During a White House briefing on Thursday, Dr. Deborah Birx, a member of the coronavirus task force, said the country could see a spike in coronavirus cases over the next few days. This is due to testing improvements and tests will be run more frequently, which will help with the backlog of tests.

If you feel sick:

The Florida Department of Health has opened a COVID-19 Call Center at 1-866-779-6121. Agents will answer questions around the clock. Questions may also be emailed to covid-19@flhealth.gov. Email responses will be sent during call center hours.

LINK: Florida's COVID-19 website

CORONAVIRUS IN FLORIDA: What you need to know

AROUND THE WORLD: CoronavirusNOW.com

Map of known COVID-19 cases:

MOBILE APP USERS: Click here for map