As pandemic grows, South Florida’s healthcare and emergency workers battle ‘an invisible enemy’

Each tiny coronavirus droplet can have an outsize impact if it infects the police, firefighters, paramedics, nurses and doctors who are South Florida’s ultimate line of defense during the pandemic. If these folks get sick, they have a higher chance of spreading the disease. And because testing is still limited and results slow, public-safety departments and hospitals risk finding themselves shorthanded as staff are quarantined just when they are needed most.