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Coronavirus Live Updates: Florida Adds More Than 9,000 New Cases, 129 New Resident Deaths

A nurse vaccinates environmetal services worker Gustavo Lazo early Wednesday morning as Baptist Health began administering the first COVID-19 vaccines for its front-line healthcare workers in Miami, Florida, on Dec. 16, 2020.
JOSE A IGLESIAS JIGLESIAS@ELNUEVOHERALD.COM
/
The Miami Herald
A nurse vaccinates environmetal services worker Gustavo Lazo early Wednesday morning as Baptist Health began administering the first COVID-19 vaccines for its front-line healthcare workers in Miami, Florida, on Dec. 16, 2020.

This post will be updated today, Friday, Jan. 22, 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.

To receive WLRN's coronavirus updates newsletter on Wednesdays and Saturdays, sign up here.

QUICK UPDATES

Florida Adds More Than 9,000 New Cases, 129 New Resident Deaths

Updated Sunday at 4:10 p.m.

Florida’s Department of Health confirmed an additional 9,535 positive cases of COVID-19 Sunday. Florida has a total of 1,649,449 confirmed positive cases, according to the state's health department.

Sunday's update also included the announcement of 129 new resident deaths, increasing the statewide number of Floridians who died to 25,293. Factoring in non-resident deaths the number of deaths due to COVID-19 is 25,693.

Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties make up 8,862 of those reported deaths. Monroe County has reported 39 deaths due to COVID-19.

— WLRN News

Many People Say It’s Hard To Get The Second Dose Of The COVID Vaccine. Florida Stops Reporting Number Overdue

Updated Sunday at 11:45 a.m.

Many people who persisted through long lines and jammed phone systems to get the first dose of the COVID vaccine in Florida say it’s turned out to be just as difficult to get the second dose.

About two dozen seniors expressed concerns about the second-dose procedures to the Sun-Sentinel. Some said the instructions were unclear. Others said appointments for second shots were canceled with the explanation that no doses were available. Others said no one picked up the phone.

“We called and called and no one answered the phone at Lake County Health, the number we were given,” said John Ronald, who got the first dose with his wife and was told to call for a booster appointment for the date on a card. “Finally, we got a recording saying to press 0 for COVID vaccine information. The person answering the phone said she did not know anything about second doses. This was 11 days before we needed the dose. No one knew anything about it.”

Read more at our news partner the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

— David Fleshler / Sun Sentinel

Florida Adds More Than 13,000 New Cases, All-Time Resident Death Toll Surpasses 25,000

Updated Friday at 4 p.m.

Florida’s Department of Health confirmed an additional 13,719 positive cases of COVID-19 Friday. Florida has a total of 1,627,603 confirmed positive cases, according to the state's health department.

Friday's update also included the announcement of 272 new resident deaths, increasing the statewide number of Floridians who died to 25,011. Factoring in non-resident deaths the number of deaths due to COVID-19 is 25,405.

Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties make up 8,772 of those reported deaths. Monroe County has reported 39 deaths due to COVID-19.

— WLRN News

Miami-Dade Commissioners Handed 1,300 Vaccine Slots To Fill By County Hospital

Updated Friday at 2 p.m.

With demand sky-high for COVID-19 vaccines, Miami-Dade commissioners on Friday were handed a coveted batch of appointments to fill as they see fit.

The head of Jackson Health, the county hospital that commissioners help oversee, announced the distribution plan, saying each commissioner’s chief of staff would receive a form with 100 vaccine slots to fill. Jackson CEO Carlos Migoya said appointments must go to people 65 or over who can prove they live in Florida.

“You’ll have a spreadsheet in which you’ll be able to provide us the names and numbers of the people” who get the appointments, Migoya said during a meeting with commissioners. He described the plan as a way to reach residents who haven’t been able to get appointments through the largely online process that’s already underway.

Read more at our news partner the Miami Herald.

— Douglas Hanks / Miami Herald

Mount Sinai Cancels All Scheduled First-Dose COVID Vaccines. Second Doses Not Affected

Updated Friday at 6:25 a.m

Days after Baptist Health, South Florida’s largest nonprofit hospital system, abruptly canceled COVID vaccine appointments for hundreds, Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach is taking a similar action.

Due to restraints on the COVID-19 vaccine supply, all first-dose vaccinations booked for Jan. 23 and later are canceled. No new appointments will be taken.

Second-dose appointments are not affected, as required by the vaccine’s emergency use authorization.

— By Samantha J. Gross / The Miami Herald

Read more from our news partner at The Miami Herald.

Heat announce attendance policies, with COVID-Detection Dogs Ready

Updated Thursday at 6:20 a.m

The Miami Heat on Thursday outlined their formal plans for the resumption of attendance at AmericanAirlines Arena, a plan initially limited to season-ticket holders that includes COVID-detecting dogs.

The Heat plan to allow fewer than 2,000 spectators into games for the first time this season, starting with the Jan. 28 nationally televised game against the Los Angeles Clippers.

At the forefront of the plan will be the screening of those entering with specially training COVID-detection dogs.

— By Ira Winderman / The South Florida Sun Sentinel

Read more from our news partner at The South Florida Sun Sentinel.

Palm Diocese Requires Students To Get A COVID Test If They’ve Been On A Plane

Updated Friday at 6:17 a.m

Nearly a third of Broward County public school students are not making adequate academic progress as the coronavirus pandemic forced them to turn their homes into classrooms, underscoring a deep divide in digital learning, parental support and a lack of socialization needed for children to thrive, the district’s top administrator said Wednesday.

Out of the Broward public school system’s 203,884 students, almost 59,000 of them are “struggling academically, socially and emotionally,” Superintendent Robert Runcie said during a school board meeting Wednesday morning.

And, he emphasized, the problem is impacting the most vulnerable in the community.

— By Austen Erblat / The South Florida Sun Sentinel

Read more from our news partner at The South Florida Sun Sentinel.

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