This post will be updated today, Friday, Jan. 8, and through the weekend with the latest information on COVID-19 in South Florida.
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 Reports More Than 12,000 COVID Cases And More Than 100 Deaths Sunday
Updated Sunday at 3 p.m.
The state of Florida’s COVID-19 dashboardreported another 12,313 cases and 111 total deaths, the highest numbers for a Sunday since summer’s pandemic peak.
Throughout the pandemic, reduced data collection over the weekend usually has resulted in fewer cases and deaths reported on Sunday. One exception was July 12, the day Florida set a then-national record of 15,300 cases. That number wasn’t surpassed by a single Florida day until December’s last days and not surpassed on a Sunday until this one.
The death toll, of which 111 are residents, is the highest reported on a Sunday throughout the pandemic, excepting the Sundays following no report on Saturday.
— David J. Neal / The Miami Herald
Read more from our news partner The Miami Herald
Is There A COVID Vaccination Plan For Florida’s Prisons? Guards, Inmates Are Waiting
Updated Friday at 8:55 a.m.
Florida Corrections Secretary Mark Inch has submitted a request that could clear the way for thousands of state prisoners who are 65 and older to get a coronavirus vaccine, but it has yet to be approved by state health officials.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has directed that the first doses of the vaccine go to Floridians older than 65, but his administration is not saying when inmates who are in that age group will be eligible.
Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman Jason Pizzo, who talked to Inch about the pending request on Wednesday, told the Herald/Times that Inch has identified 4,169 inmates who would qualify under the state’s age group criteria. Florida currently holds roughly 80,000 inmates in prisons, Inch said.
Read more at our news partner the Miami Herald.
— Ana Ceballos / Miami Herald