The U.S. now has more than 35,200 confirmed cases and 471 deaths across 34 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam as of Sunday night. Globally, more than 14,700 people have died of the virus and 341,365 people have been confirmed to have it, according to the Johns Hopkins University data dashboard.
Florida is closing all of its state parks to the public due to the coronavirus crisis.
At the direction of the governor and to successfully uphold social distancing guidance from the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection said it will close all state parks to the public, effective Monday. The Sunshine State is home to nearly 200 state parks and trails.
A notice on the Florida State Parks website said the Department of Environmental Protection “has taken many measures to continue providing resource recreation at our state parks during this time, such as limiting operating hours and reducing visitor capacity at parks with high visitation.”
“Unfortunately,” the notice continued, “this has not resulted in the reductions needed to best protect public health and safety as Florida continues to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.”
There are more than 1,000 diagnosed cases of the novel coronavirus in Florida, and at least 13 of those patients have died, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
A U.S. Secret Service employee is in quarantine after testing positive for the novel coronavirus, the agency confirmed in a statement late Sunday night.
“The Secret Service has conducted a comprehensive contact trace assessment and determined that the employee has not had contact with any Secret Service employee or protectee for nearly three weeks,” the agency said.
Further information about the employee’s identity was not provided due to privacy considerations.
