According to a release by the City of Miami Springs, Miami-Dade County will be using the Miami-Dade County Public Library in Miami Springs as one of 10 testing sites. According to the City, the tests will be done one day per week over a 6 week span.
This won’t be a Coronavirus testing facility. Instead, they will be testing blood samples of randomly selected residents from around the area to determine how many residents may have already recovered from the Coronavirus and not know it. it will help the County paint a better picture of the virus’ spread through the community.
Here’s the full release from the City of Miami Springs:
“Miami Dade County is undertaking a new COVID-19 Rapid Testing initiative with the University of Miami to understand the prevalence of the epidemic across the general population of Miami-Dade. They have identified 10 testing sites throughout the County, to be located at their library facilities. One of the sites is the Miami Springs library. These tests will be done one day a week for the next 6 weeks. The first day is Monday April 6 at out library. There will be a maximum of 50 tests done at the site or about 4-5 tests per hour, participants are randomly called from the area (including Miami Springs residents) and given an appointment to come in a take a test where the results are back in 15 minutes. THIS IS NOT OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. The data from these studies will be utilized to develop County and municipal policy actions going forward. Their goal is to develop an epidemic model to better forecast local impacts over the short and medium terms.
Miami-Dade plans to use targeted blood tests across the county to track the spread of coronavirus in an effort to get a broader picture of how to respond to the outbreak.
Mayor Carlos Gimenez said this week the county has access to new pinprick tests that detect the antibodies in blood that indicate someone has the disease or has recovered from it. Results can be ready in 15 minutes, and subjects will be chosen at random each week based on demographic data.”
State of Florida COVID-19 Cases:
- 9,585 confirmed cases
- 1,215 Hospitalized (13%)
- 163 Deaths (1.7%)
Miami-Dade COVID-19 Cases:
- 3,029 confirmed cases
- 205 Hospitalized (7% Hospitalization rate in Miami-Dade)
- 25 Deaths (0.83% of Miami-Dade Confirmed Cases)
LOCAL MUNICIPALITIES WITH CONFIRMED CASES OF COVID-19
- Miami: 1,752
- Hialeah: 365
- Coral Gables: 51
- Doral: 38
- Opa-Locka: 33
- Miami Lakes: 16
- Miami Springs: 2
- Town of Medley: 2
- Sweetwater: 1
- Virginia Gardens: 0
