Florida has sent eight suspected cases of swine flu to the Centers for Disease Control for testing, include at least one from Palm Beach County, Gov. Charlie Crist said this morning.

Florida still has no confirmed cases of the virus, Crist said. And all eight suspected cases are “mild.”

“They are mild cases, as they are in most of the cases in the United State,” Crist said.

The state is hoping to receive the test results today or tomorrow. The other suspected cases are from Broward, Alachua, Lee, Orange and Pinellas.

To deal with a potential outbreak, the state has sent protective gear, including masks, to hospitals and clinics, and has stockpiled about 500,000 doses of anti-virals.

Viamonte-Ros urged Floridians to use “common sense,” such as coughing or sneezing into arms instead of hands, washing hands and staying home from work or school if they feel sick.

“Right now, with the diseases we’ve seen in our community, we feel confident we’re able to provide all the providers and hospitals with the medications they need,” she said.

Tags: swine flu

This entry was posted on Friday, May 1st, 2009 at 10:33 am and is filed under state agencies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.