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
Florida Surpasses 1.3 Million Confirmed Cases, Adds More Than 13,000 New Cases
Updated Wednesday at 3:20 p.m.
Florida’s Department of Health confirmed an additional 13,871 positive cases of COVID-19 Wednesday. Florida has a total of 1,306,123 confirmed positive cases, according to the state's health department.
Wednesday's update also included the announcement of 137 new resident deaths, increasing the statewide number of Floridians who died to 21,546. Factoring in non-resident deaths the number of deaths due to COVID-19 is 21,857.
Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties make up 7,890 of those reported deaths. Monroe County has reported 35 deaths due to COVID-19.
— WLRN News
Last-Minute Law Change Could Mean More COVID Relief, Grocery Cards In Miami-Dade
Updated Wednesday at 6:40 a.m
A last-minute reprieve from Congress could mean millions of dollars in business aid, food stipends and other economic relief for Miami-Dade residents if the county’s strained budget doesn’t first absorb the remaining CARES Act dollars that were set to be frozen on Wednesday.
The stimulus bill that President Donald Trump signed into law on Sunday added a full year to the time local and state governments have to spend their allocations from the CARES Act — legislation passed in March that sent $474 million in relief money to Miami-Dade.
A central string attached to the money was that it could only cover expenses in 2020, a rule that saw Miami-Dade cities scrambling to get their slices of the county CARES pie spent this month. That strategy sparked a blitz of grocery-card giveaways as the fastest method of getting the federal dollars spent by year’s end.
— By Douglas Hanks, Joey Flechas and Samantha J. Gross / The Miami Herald
Read more from our news partner at The Miami Herald.
Lines At The Airport, Wynwood Crowds — Tourists Coming To Miami Despite Surging Coronavirus
Updated Wednesday at 6:30 a.m
Even as daily COVID-19 case counts remain near all-time highs, the Miami area is seeing a surge in holiday travelers looking to break out of their quarantine confines and take advantage of the region’s friendly winter climes.
At Miami International Airport, passenger volumes averaged nearly 68,000 Dec. 24-27, including a pandemic high of more than 84,000 Sunday.
“We have been trending in the 70s and we are starting to see passenger counts in the 80s,“ said MIA spokesman Jack Varela.
— By Rob Wile / The Miami Herald
Read more from our news partner at The Miami Herald.
