The Florida Department of Health is working closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to closely monitor the current outbreak of the coronavirus and is actively working to ensure that the most up-to-date CDC guidance is quickly and accurately disseminated to local partners.
Though no cases have been reported in Florida to date, the Department is coordinating closely with our local partners to investigate, confirm, contain and report any suspected cases, should they occur.
Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses, some causing respiratory illness in people and others circulating among animals including camels, cats and bats. Rarely, animal coronaviruses can evolve and infect people and then spread between people, such as has been seen with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). When person-to-person spread has occurred with SARS and MERS, it is thought to happen via respiratory droplets with close contacts, similar to how influenza and other respiratory pathogens spread.
While severe illness, including illness resulting in several deaths, has been reported in China, other patients have had milder illness and been discharged. Symptoms associated with this virus have included fever, cough and trouble breathing. The confirmation that some limited person-to-person spread with this virus is occurring in Asia raises the level of concern about this virus, but the CDC continues to believe the risk to the American public at large remains low at this time.
