WLRN staff continues to add to community resource lists, including this articleon where kids and families can get food while schools are closed, and this postabout whether and where to get tested for coronavirus.
The dedicated website for the Florida Department of Health, including information about symptoms and numbers of cases, can be found here.
The dedicated website from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can be found here.
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QUICK UPDATES
More Than A Third Of New Cases Reported Sunday Come From Miami-Dade And Broward Counties
Updated Sunday at 12:45 p.m.
The Florida Department of Health’s COVID-19 dashboard reported 4,865 new cases Sunday, the most on a Sunday since early August.
Throughout the pandemic, less data collection and entry result in Sunday reports having lower case and fatality numbers than the rest of the week. Sunday case numbers have ranged from 1,800 to 2,500 over the last two months. Not counting Oct. 11, when the case report combined Oct. 10 and 11, this is the most reported on a Sunday since the 6,229 cases on Aug. 9.
Over one-third of Florida’s reported new cases Sunday came from Miami-Dade and Broward counties.
Read more from our news partner the Miami Herald
-David J. Neal/Miami Herald
Florida Surpasses 800,000 Cases Of COVID-19
Updated Friday at 1:30 p.m.
Florida reported 5,592 new coronavirus cases on Friday, the highest total in 2½ months and continuing an upward trend of COVID-19 infections across the state.
With the latest numbers, Florida now has a pandemic total of 800,216 people who have tested positive for the disease. Almost 17,000 of them have died.
Friday’s data show it’s the most new COVID-19 cases in one day since the state tallied 6,352 cases on Aug. 15.
Read more at our news partner the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
—Marc Freeman/Sun Sentinel
Florida Funding For Vital COVID-19 Contact Tracing May Be Ending Soon
Updated Friday at 7:30 a.m.
The director of the Palm Beach County health department made a startling public statement Tuesday: After Nov. 30, Florida will stop funding local efforts to trace new coronavirus infections.
“We want to keep the contact tracing effective. We want to maintain those people that we have,” Alina Alonso said at a local county commission meeting. “Definitely a big concern for the entire state.”
Contact tracing is a time-intensive investigative process used to get in touch with people who have come into contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. It’s been held up by Florida Surgeon General Scott Rivkees as “a way that we actually stop the cycle of transmission.”
Read more from our news partner at The Miami Herald.
— Kirby Wilson, Romy Ellenbogen and Megan Reeves/Tampa Bay Times
COVID-19 Spike At Boca Raton’s Calusa Elementary Investigated
Updated Friday at 7:16 a.m.
A big jump in COVID-19 cases at Calusa Elementary has drawn the attention of county health officials, who are investigating potential connections between the infected students and employees.
The Boca Raton school reported six students and one employee testing positive for coronavirus infections between Monday and Wednesday. Thursday afternoon, the school informed parents of two additional student cases.
Palm Beach County public school officials said there was no evidence so far of any "student-to-student or student-to-adult transmissions" at Calusa or any other campus.
— By Andrew Marra/ The Palm Beach Post
Read more from our news partner at The Palm Beach Post.