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
Vaccine Appointment Phone Lines Are Full In Palm Beach County
Updated Monday at 4:45 p.m.
Gov. Ron DeSantis' decision to vaccinate senior citizens first has caused a huge demand in the state. Palm Beach County’s health department is trying to avoid long lines and phone line crashes.
The vaccine request line is full. The health department says vaccine appointments should be made via email only.
In a statement on its website, the county’s health department is telling senior citizens that people without an appointment will not receive a vaccine.
Health officials say they are transitioning to a new website based on an appointment system to handle the large flow of vaccine requests.
As appointment slots open up, vaccine requests will be processed in the order they were received.
The department wrote “vaccination appointments are based on dosage availability.”
— Wilkine Brutus / WLRN News
Key West To Consider Resolution Asking For More Authority On Local COVID Rules
Updated Monday at 4:15 p.m.
The Key West city commission is scheduled to consider a resolution Tuesday, calling on Gov. Ron DeSantis to allow "home rule" for local municipalities to enact and enforce COVID-19 regulations.
According to the resolution, sponsored by Commissioner Clayton Lopez, the governor's executive order that restricts local governments and forbids collecting of fines on COVID violations is a "severe hindrance to protecting public health."
The commission is also scheduled to consider a proposal to spend $380,000 between now and March on more local COVID relief, including food and rental assistance, free rapid testing and quarantine assistance for local businesses.
The meeting is scheduled for 5 p.m. at City Hall, 1300 White St. It can also be viewed by live streaming on the city’s website, Comcast Channel 77 and AT&T Channel 99, and via Zoom. In addition, there will be an outdoor viewing area just outside the chambers.
To attend and participate virtually via Zoom by calling 1-646-558-8656 Meeting ID 9224473 9219 Passcode: 287348 or online at https://zoom.us/j/92244739219 Passcode: 287348
— Nancy Klingener / WLRN News
Florida Adds More Than 11,000 New Cases, All-Time Resident Deaths Surpass 22,000
Updated Monday at 4 p.m.
Florida’s Department of Health confirmed an additional 11,266 positive cases of COVID-19 Monday. Florida has a total of 1,376,692 confirmed positive cases, according to the state's health department.
Monday's update also included the announcement of 103 new resident deaths, increasing the statewide number of Floridians who died to 22,090. Factoring in non-resident deaths the number of deaths due to COVID-19 is 22,415.
Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties make up 8,059 of those reported deaths. Monroe County has reported 35 deaths due to COVID-19.
— WLRN News
Florida Sees Record-Breaking Number Of New COVID Cases, Testing Over New Year’s Holiday
Updated Monday at 7:45 a.m.
On Saturday, the first reporting day of 2021, the Florida Department of Health confirmed 31,518 additional cases, the highest number recorded yet since the pandemic began — and that’s counting data dumps and two-day reported figures post-Thanksgiving (17,344 on Nov. 27) and post-Christmas (17,042 on Dec. 26).
The state did not report figures on New Year’s Day, Friday. As was the case with Thanksgiving and Christmas Day holiday, Florida is reporting two-day today figures in its post-holiday report.
Florida has now a total of 1,354,833 confirmed cases. Also, 217 new resident deaths were announced, bringing the resident toll to 21,890. Two-day totals for deaths after holidays were 140 on Dec. 26 and 109 on Nov. 27.
— By Howard Cohen / The Miami Herald
Read more from our news partner at The Miami Herald.
Broward’s COVID Vaccination Sign-Up Site Sees More Outages On Sunday
Updated Monday at 8:30 a.m.
A hefty dose of patience was required Sunday for seniors hoping to use the state Department of Health’s Broward County site to sign up for a COVID-19 vaccination.
People 65 and over can make an appointment on the site at browardcovidvaccine.com. But on Sunday, the site had some rocky moments where it went offline, came back online, then went offline again. The site also crashed on Wednesday, overwhelmed by the number of people trying to sign up.
Early Sunday morning it crashed again, but came back online at 6:21 a.m., health department officials announced on Twitter.
By 9 a.m. it was down again — and back up 12 minutes later.
— By Susannah Bryan / The South Florida Sun Sentinel
Read more from our news partner at The South Florida Sun Sentinel.