Several County Employees Test Positive For COVID-19: Report

MANATEE COUNTY, FL — Manatee County government is facing another COVID-19 outbreak.

During Monday’s Board of County Commissioners meeting, officials said that several employees working on the ninth floor of the county’s downtown Bradenton administration building tested positive for coronavirus and were sick and isolating at home, the Bradenton Times reported.

There were nearly 1,000 new COVID-19 cases reported in Manatee County July 16-22 and a countywide 15.4 percent new case positivity rate during that period, according to the Florida Department of Health’s COVID-19 Weekly Situation Report

Commissioner Carol Whitmore said one county employee died from the virus over the weekend, according to reports.

"The whole ninth floor is sent home because everyone is contaminated by people with COVID. We have the top echelon in the county that are covid positive, and we just had another employee die this weekend of COVID,” Whitmore said.

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She also noted that those who are sick are younger workers in their twenties and thirties, reports said.

Hopes added that he was told Sunday evening that he was exposed to an employee in his department who tested positive for COVID-19. He said that vaccinated employee was “very ill,” the Bradenton Times said.

A county-run summer camp also shut down for two days because a staff member tested positive for COVID-19, the Bradenton Herald reported. The camp at Braden River Elementary School at 6125 River Club Blvd. in Bradenton was closed Monday and Tuesday.