Woman’s death not yet among the 80 reported in Palm Beach County; cases statewide near 19,000 with 445 dead.

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Danielle Hedrick DiCenso loved working as a nurse and helping the most critical patients.

But like so many other health workers on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic, the 33-year-old Wellington-area mother struggled with fear and anxiety before arriving for every shift in the intensive care unit at Palmetto General Hospital in Hialeah.

One night last month, "she called me in tears because she was so scared about what she was going to face at work,’’ said David Jelks, who went to nursing school with DiCenso.

"I talked to her for awhile and calmed her down. Now I wish I had told her to leave."

DiCenso died Thursday at home in her sleep from what her family suspects was the deadly respiratory disease, which would make her the first health care worker identified publicly and youngest person to have died in Palm Beach County since the virus began claiming lives in March.

While her death prompted new calls for adequate protective gear for first-responders, the county Saturday issued an executive order for the public to begin wearing masks in grocery stores, pharmacies and other "locations where social distancing measures are not possible," a move officials had been contemplating for several days.

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Residents can wear homemade masks but they are asked not to wear surgical masks or N95 rated masks, "as those are critical supplies for health care workers,’’ the county said in a statement.

While the order goes into effect Monday morning, County Administrator Verdenia Baker urged residents to start masking up now.

"With the holidays being this weekend and families grocery shopping and getting together, it is advised that everyone who needs to be closer than 6 feet wear face coverings immediately," Baker said. "The number of new cases is going down and the sooner we consistently slow the spread, the sooner life starts to get back to normal."

The order defined a facial covering this way: "Any covering which snugly covers the lower face, nose, and mouth, whether store bought or homemade mask, or clothing covering, including but not limited to, a scarf, bandanna, handkerchief or other similar cloth covering and which is secured in place."

The county order said people "should" wear face coverings and "strongly urged" those in any public place to wear the masks. It did not describe a penalty for failure to follow the order and County Mayor Dave Kerner said Saturday that wearing masks is voluntary.

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Palm Beach County reported a 24-hour gain of 68 coronavirus cases Saturday, for a total of 1,499. That’s a 5 percent increase over Friday night, the lowest increase reported since April 5.

One more person died overnight in the county, which has 80 fatalities, second most in the state to Miami-Dade’s 93. Broward has 76.

The lone Palm Beach County death announced Saturday was a 71-year-old man who first appeared on the state’s list of cases on March 31.

The average age of the 80 people who have died in Palm Beach County is 79.8. The youngest person listed in health department reports, a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s sergeant who had a preexisting condition, was 38. The oldest was 96.

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Nurse feared working conditions

If DiCenso’s death is confirmed, she would be the youngest, at 33.

She leaves behind a husband, a 4-year-old son and hundreds of grieving relatives, friends and co-workers who have offered condolences on her husband’s Facebook age.

"She was young and healthy and she didn’t think it would happen to her like that,’’ David DiCenso said in an interview.

While he said his wife was passionate about helping people, she was also afraid of the working conditions at Palmetto General, where she started working in January.

"It really broke her heart that she couldn't perform her job at a place she felt safe at,’’ he said. "She had lots and lots of text messages between her and coworkers saying they were not properly equipped and (Palmetto officials were not) representing what was really going on at the hospitals.’’

David DiCenso pointed out that another Palmetto General nurse died last Sunday. Earl Bailey, 56, was healthy and exercised every day, his daughter told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in a story published Wednesday.

A phone call and email to Tenet HealthCare, which owns Palmetto General, was not immediately returned.

‘It came in waves’

David DiCenso said his wife was tested for the virus on March 23. Although initial results were negative, he said, a day later she was told the test was inconclusive.

Even though she was told under federal guidelines to quarantine for 72 hours, he said, the hospital was "still calling her to come in. ‘Are you feeling good? We don't have enough people.’ And not just with her," he said.

She started feeling symptoms around March 25, he said.

"It came in waves where she thought she was OK, then, in the middle of the night she would be coughing and coughing. It was real scary,’’ her husband said.

She refused his pleas to go to the hospital, choosing to stay quarantined in a living room at their home east of Wellington while her husband kept their son secluded in his bedroom.

"The night before she died, her fever started going down. I stayed up with her until 1 in the morning, watching the news," he said.

When David DiCenso woke up the next morning, he walked into the living room and found his wife’s lifeless body on the couch. "She was blue," he said. choking back tears. "I thought she was OK and then it happens in the middle of the night.’’

David DiCenso said he and his son feel fine. They have been tested and expect to get their results in a few days.

He said he hopes his wife’s death will prompt people to take precautions, no matter how fit and young they are.

"Just to think about her being a nurse, especially with everything in the media about how it only affects older people," he said, holding back tears.

"If you think you have any symptoms, you should definitely go in (to the hospital)," he said. "Don’t try to ride it out no matter how healthy you are."

Jelks, who graduated from Keiser University's nursing program with Danielle in 2016 or ‘17, said he hopes the tragedies are "a big wakeup call" to make sure doctors, nurses and medical workers get adequate personal protective equipment.

"We understand what we are signing up for when it comes to facing the threat of disease,’’ said Jelks, a critical care nurse at Delray Medical Center. "What we don’t accept is that we are supposed to accept that we are not going to be protected from this stuff.’’

Jelks said DiCenso, who worked at Wellington Regional Medical Center before leaving in October for Palmetto, told him she was planning to take a job with him at Delray Medical Center.

"She had a couple of weeks left on her contract,’’ he said.

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Pace of new cases slows

While more Palm Beach County cases are identified every day, the pace has slowed significantly since March 30, the last time county cases were on a pace to double every three days.

The state reported 1,018 new cases Saturday to 18,986, a 5.7 percent increase since Friday night. The state numbers also have fallen off a pace to double every three days, a pace not met since March 30.

Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties account for 11,101 cases and 249 deaths, which make up just less than 60 percent of those totals statewide.

The Miami Herald reported Saturday that the state figure for how many people are awaiting test results, about 1,400, is artificially low because the state doesn’t track private testing centers.

The private labs account for more than 90 percent of Florida’s tests, the newspaper found.

In the Treasure Coast, Martin and St. Lucie counties have 266 cases and nine deaths. Indian River County has 72 cases and Okeechobee County has five, state health officials reported.

The county’s mask decision followed similar directives and recommendations issued by Boca Raton and Delray Beach and many cities in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

Boynton Beach quickly followed the county’s lead Saturday and ordered its residents to wear masks in public places, effective immediately.

Nationally, the death toll surpassed 20,000, the most of any nation, passing Italy. Total coronavirus cases in America topped 524,000.

New York topped 181,000 cases and New Jersey had 58,000. Michigan, California, Massachusetts, Louisiana and Pennsylvania all surpassed 20,000 cases, followed closely by Florida and Illinois.

Globally, deaths topped 108,000 with more than 1.7 million people worldwide infected.

‘Anxiety and apprehension’

Jelks said he wants the tragedies of the nurses deaths to underscore the emotional toll the pandemic wages on relatives and loved ones of first responders.

He said he might never get over the shock of DiCenso’s death. About a week ago, he noticed it had been a while since he heard from DiCenso, who usually checked in with him.

A fellow nurse showed him a text saying she had died. "I thought it was a joke,’’ he said. "I was floored. I was on the phone talking with her one week, then this.’’

It hits home for him.

"Most people who are married to nurses and doctors probably have some anxiety and apprehension. I know my wife does,’’ said Jelks, who lives in a townhouse off Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard in West Palm Beach.

"My routine when I come home is that my wife meets me at the front door with a can of Lysol and sprays me up and down, the whole uniform and disinfects my shoes. I am pretty much undressed when I finally walk into the house.’’

At first, he said he got some "weird" looks from neighbors watching his home-from-work routine. "I just smiled at them and said I work as a nurse. Then they’re like, ‘Oh! Well, thank you!’"

jcapozzi@pbpost.com

jwagner@pbpost.com

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