MIAMI – Florida will receive more than $22 million from the $8.3 billion bill the Senate passed on Thursday to help fight the coronavirus outbreak, according to Sen. Marco Rubio.
The funds are meant to strengthen the Department of Health and Human Services and to help state and local public health agencies to subsidize testing and treatment.
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“Another $500k will also be sent to the state as part of emergency funding,” Rubio wrote on Twitter.
The Senate’s 96-1 vote sends the bill to the White House for President Donald Trump’s signature. The House passed the bill on Wednesday with a 415-2 vote.
The bill includes funding to subsidize $7 billion in small business loans nationwide. According to Rubio, the Small Business Administration will be handling the loans to small firms impacted by the coronavirus outbreak.
As of Thursday afternoon, the U.S. death toll had climbed to 12 and no Florida COVID-19 patients had died of the virus.
The number of cases in the U.S. climbed to more than 200, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nine of those are Florida cases, according to the Florida Health Department.
State officials reported two of the infections were Florida residents in Hillsborough County who traveled to Italy.
One Florida patient, who lives in Manatee County, did not travel to any of the countries where the infection is spreading, officials said.
Five of the cases are Florida residents who were repatriated from China and one is a non-Florida resident. A patient in New York was diagnosed after traveling to Miami-Dade County.
Officials reported Florida also has 69 pending testing results and 248 people being monitored.