Florida

MIAMI—Florida was one of the earliest states to lock down elder-care facilities in the coronavirus pandemic, and the move helped stave off widespread deaths at such centers in the spring. But as the state contends with a surge of new infections, those defenses have faltered, triggering a fresh round of government interventions. Daily fatality counts…

Florida set another grim record Tuesday with nearly 200 more COVID-19 deaths recorded overnight, but in recent days an ominous sight outside a funeral home has been sending a shiver through a Miami-area town –- a refrigerated trailer for storing bodies.Rumors that the corpses of coronavirus victims were being stored there -- and unfounded fears…

An error by the Florida Department of Health produced a COVID-19 positivity rate for children of nearly one-third, a stunning figure that played into the debate over whether schools should reopen. A week after issuing that statistic, the department took it back without explanation. The next weekly report on children and COVID-19 showed the rate…

A mother in Florida lost her 20-year-old son to COVID-19, and then 11 days later, her 22-year-old daughter also died from the disease."I hold up pretty much well at the daytime, but at night, it really hits me," Monete Hicks, 48, of Lauderdale Lakes, told NBC 6 of South Florida. "I'm so used to them…

THE VILLAGES, Fla. — For months, many of the residents at one of America’s biggest retirement communities went about their lives as if the coronavirus barely existed. They played bridge. They held dances. They went to house parties in souped-up golf carts that looked like miniature Jaguars and Rolls-Royces. And for months they appeared to…