WLRN staff continues to add updates on testing and vaccination sites, executive orders and messages from government officials, and the latest news on COVID-19. You can find information on free food and food distributions here.
The dedicated website for the Florida Department of Health, including information about the 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 Adds More Than 5,700 New Cases, More Than 200 New Resident Deaths
Updated Monday at 3:15 p.m.
Florida’s Department of Health confirmed an additional 5,730 positive cases of COVID-19 Monday. Florida has a total of 1,727,107 confirmed positive cases, according to the state's health department.
Monday's update also included the announcement of 206 new resident deaths, increasing the statewide number of Floridians who died to 26,685. Factoring in non-resident deaths the number of deaths due to COVID-19 is 27,129.
Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties make up 9,187 of those reported deaths. Monroe County has reported 40 deaths due to COVID-19.
— WLRN News
MAST Academy Quarantines 25 Teachers, 200 Students After A Dozen COVID Cases This Week
Updated Monday at 7:10 a.m
MAST Academy on Virginia Key has quarantined 25 teachers and more than 200 students after at least a dozen positive cases were reported this week, according to the school’s principal.
Principal Derick McKoy called families Friday night with a stern, nearly three-minute-long message.
“Makos, COVID-19 has impacted our school in a very negative way,” he said. MAST, he said, is No. 1 in the Miami-Dade County Public School’s central region for most COVID-19 positive cases.
— By Colleen Wright and Devoun Cetoute / The Miami Herald
Read more from our news partner at The Miami Herald.
Young Partiers Foul The Beach; Now Condo Owners Want To Lock Out The Public At Night
Updated Monday at 7:05 a.m
Every weekend, a young and rowdy party crowd takes over a secluded strip of Fort Lauderdale beach, leaving behind condoms, beer bottles, smoldering bonfires — and hundreds of well-to-do homeowners thoroughly annoyed by the putrid stench of urine and stale beer.
Condo president Hy Montero, who gets a birds’-eye view from his 30th floor balcony, has a solution: padlock the only gate that leads to the beach from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., locking out the public.
Montero, president of the 31-story Point of Americas 2 high rise, says more than a dozen of the neighborhood’s homeowner and condo association groups love the idea. All they need is permission from the city — but so far, they don’t have it.
— By Susannah Bryan / The South Florida Sun Sentinel
Read more from our news partner at The South Florida Sun Sentinel.
More COVID-19 Vaccine Coming To Palm Beach County, And It Won’t Be At Publix
Updated Monday at 7:00 a.m
After an outcry about access to COVID-19 vaccines in Palm Beach County, Publix will no longer be the only game in town if you want to get a shot.
The state Department of Health in the county will receive 5,000 additional doses of vaccine next week, allocated to communities that don’t have a Publix pharmacy.
The decision came days after public officials lambasted Gov. Ron DeSantis for relying on Publix to distribute vaccines in Palm Beach County. The move left many residents, most of them poor, with no way to get protected, they said.
— By Wells Dusenbury / The South Florida Sun Sentinel
Read more from our news partner at The South Florida Sun Sentinel.
Three New Schools Remain In The Works Despite COVID; Smaller Projects Delayed
Updated Monday at 6:57 a.m
Despite a statewide economy in pandemic turmoil, the Palm Beach County school district remains on track to open three new schools and thus relieve patches of intense crowding by the fall of 2023.
However, beyond those projects, some trouble looms.
As crews work through a list of $1 billion in school maintenance and repairs paid for by a county wide penny sales tax increase, district leaders have had to put on the back burner certain improvements at 16 schools as construction costs have climbed.
— By Sonja Isger / The Palm Beach Post
Read more from our news partner at The Palm Beach Post.
