MIAMI A hurricane warning was issued for parts of Floridas Atlantic coast on Friday, hours after Hurricane Isaias raked the Bahamas, parts of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

The National Hurricane Center issued the warning for over 150 miles of the Florida coastline, stretching from Boca Raton to the northern bound of Brevard County, according to an advisory on Friday afternoon. Hurricane warnings are still in effect for portions of the Bahamas through Saturday.

Hurricane watches, tropical storm warnings, a storm surge watch and a tropical storm watch are in effect for other parts of Floridas east coast.

The center forecast that the storm would near southeast Florida Saturday afternoon and through Sunday, and then travel north up the states eastern coast late Sunday. Isaias threatened strong winds, heavy rainfall and high storm surges late this weekend.

Isaias, a Category 1 hurricane, is expected to continue to strengthen Friday night and early Saturday and remain a hurricane for the next few days, but it is not forecast to strengthen to a Category 2, said Dennis Feltgen, a meteorologist and spokesman for the National Hurricane Center.

The storm, already the ninth named system of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, approached the Bahamas from the southeast on Friday morning, with maximum sustained winds of 75 miles per hour. Strong squalls and possible storm surges, forecast between three to five feet, threatened the islands, according to the center.

The potential storm surges were on top of astronomical tides, the centers director, Ken Graham, said on Friday. He described Isaias as a very large storm, with tropical force winds stretching out as far as 180 miles from the hurricanes center.

Its not just a point, its not just a track, its a very large area, he said.

Across the central Bahamas on Friday, conditions gradually deteriorated as the storm barreled across new ground. The threat from Isaias to the Bahamas comes less than a year after Hurricane Dorian ravaged Abaco and Grand Bahama, leaving residents in those areas especially unnerved. Many survivors of Dorian, who saw homes, schools, banks and whole communities crushed to rubble, are still living in tents and unrepaired homes.

The storm hit the Bahamas as it is grappling with a rapid increase in the number of coronavirus infections that has only accelerated in recent days, in what health officials are calling a second wave.

On Thursday night, Prime Minister Hubert Minnis announced the temporary relaxation of restrictions to give people more time to prepare for the storm. While there are formal hurricane shelters on Grand Bahama, it was unclear how officials would ensure social distancing in them.

In an interview with The Nassau Guardian, Melissa McPhee, 44, said her Grand Bahama home was protected only by a tarp on her roof, after having sustained significant flood and wind damage during Dorian. But she said that she had nowhere else to go.

Ms. McPhee said that, as someone with an underlying condition, she was at a high risk for complications from Covid-19. She was afraid to venture out to prepare for Isaias, she said, and felt that she could not chance staying in a crowded hurricane shelter.

Florida has also been grappling with a surge in coronavirus cases. There were more than 461,000 cases statewide and more than 6,500 deaths as of Friday since the beginning of the pandemic, according to a New York Times database. Friday was the third consecutive day that Florida set its record for the most deaths reported in a single day.

Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a news conference on Friday that Florida was fully prepared for this and any future storm during this hurricane season. He said that the division of emergency management had been working at its most active level since March, allowing them to actively plan for hurricane season even while responding to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mr. DeSantis added that early on, the division had created a protective equipment reserve for hurricane season, including 20 million masks, 22 million gloves and 1.6 million face shields.

This week, the states division of emergency management announced that state-sponsored coronavirus testing sites in 11 counties would remain open, but that others would close at 5 p.m. Thursday until it was safe to reopen.

At news conferences on Friday, the Miami-Dade and Broward County mayors said coronavirus testing sites would be closed until next week.

Meteorologists have forecast a busy Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 through Nov. 30, raising fears among emergency managers about how to handle a potential major hurricane landing during the pandemic. Evacuation orders typically call people into the close quarters of emergency shelters, or to crowded distribution centers.

Last week, Hurricane Hanna hit part of Texas as a Category 1 storm, landing near some of the cities and counties that have seen a sudden spike in Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations. San Antonio officials handed out hotel room vouchers for people who fled their homes, and the mayor of Corpus Christi urged people to wear masks at home if they took in relatives.

The average hurricane season usually produces 12 named storms, including three that develop into major hurricanes. This year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted an above normal season in the Atlantic, with as many as 19 named storms. Up to 10 of those storms could become hurricanes, and as many as six of those could develop into Category 3, 4 or 5 hurricanes.

Rachel Knowles Scott contributed reporting from Nassau, the Bahamas, and Christina Morales from Hialeah, Fla.

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Hurricane Isaias Rakes the Bahamas on a Track for Floridas East Coast - The New York Times