Miami mayor tests positive for coronavirus

by Marty Johnson - 03/13/20 12:38 PM ET

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez (R) has tested positive for the coronavirus days after meeting with a Brazilian official who later also tested positive for the illness.

“It is confirmed that I have the coronavirus,” Suarez told the Miami Herald. “I did test positive for it.”

Suarez, along with Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and President Trump, met with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and his staff in South Florida earlier in the week. Suarez has been in isolation since Thursday, when he learned that Fabio Wajngarten, Bolsonaro’s press secretary, had tested positive for the virus earlier in the day.

Before isolation, the mayor had been scheduled to declare a state of emergency for the city of Miami at a press conference. Top city officials who were in close contact with Suarez have also been told to self-isolate.

Scott and fellow Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) both announced Thursday that they were self-quarantining as a result of being briefly exposed to a patient with the virus.

There have been more than 1,700 confirmed cases of coronavirus and at least 40 deaths from the disease in the U.S., according to data compiled by The New York Times. Dozens of states and Washington, D.C., have issued emergency declarations, and several states have canceled K-12 schools for the coming weeks.