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Coronavirus Live Updates: Florida Adds More Than 4,100 New Cases, State Surpasses 30,000 Resident Death Mark

People are tested for COVID-19 at Lakeside Medical Center in Belle Glade, Fla., on Friday, December 11, 2020. The Health Care District of Palm Beach County walk-up testing site is open 8 a.m. to noon and operates Monday through Friday.
[Thomas Cordy/palmbeachpost.com]
/
The Palm Beach Post
People are tested for COVID-19 at Lakeside Medical Center in Belle Glade, Fla., on Friday, December 11, 2020. The Health Care District of Palm Beach County walk-up testing site is open 8 a.m. to noon and operates Monday through Friday.

This post will be updated today, Monday, Feb. 22, and through the week with the latest information on COVID-19 in South Florida.

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.

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

QUICK UPDATES

Florida Adds More Than 4,100 New Cases, State Surpasses 30,000 Resident Death Mark

Updated Monday at 4:35 p.m.

Florida’s Department of Health confirmed an additional 4,151 positive cases of COVID-19 Monday. Florida has a total of 1,872,923 confirmed positive cases, according to the state's health department.

Monday's update also included the announcement of 159 new resident deaths, increasing the statewide number of Floridians who died to 30,065. Factoring in non-resident deaths the number of deaths due to COVID-19 is 30,595.

Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties make up 10,075 of those reported deaths. Monroe County has reported 44 deaths due to COVID-19.

— WLRN News

Broward Mayor Asks DeSantis To Allow COVID-19 Vaccine Be Given To Residents 55 And Older

Updated Monday at 5:40 a.m

Broward Mayor Steve Geller wants people over 55, law enforcement officers and teachers to be allowed to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. Hoping to expand the vaccination priority list, Geller has asked Gov. Ron DeSantis for help.

On Friday, Geller wrote to DeSantis asking that in his next executive order pertaining to the COVID-19 vaccine, the governor could include language that would expand the vaccine priority list to residents 55 and older, teachers, officers and other first responders that have not yet received the vaccine in Florida.

“People over 55 have an increased risk of bad results from exposure to COVID, all first responders run the risk of contracting COVID while protecting us and vaccinating teachers will help with a full return of children to our schools,” Geller wrote in the letter.

Read more from our news partner at The Miami Herald.

— By Devoun Cetoute / The Miami Herald

Who Is Getting The Vaccine? Disparities Persist

Updated Monday at 5:37 a.m

The COVID-19 vaccination rate remains low among Black and Hispanic Floridians despite initiatives announced by Gov. Ron DeSantis to bring more shots to underserved communities.

Now, the federal government has stepped in. The Federal Emergency Management Agency plans to open four mass vaccination sites in Florida with one at Miami Dade College’s North Campus and the others in Orlando, Tampa and Jacksonville. Around each site, two mobile units will go into nearby underserved areas and give out 500 vaccinations a day.

The mobile units are the latest effort to address a stubborn disparity in the distribution of COVID vaccinations in Florida. With about 2.5 million vaccines given so far, 10 percent of white Floridians have been vaccinated compared to just 4% of Blacks and 4% of Hispanics. That disparity is even starker in Palm Beach County.

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

— By David Fleshler and Cindy Krischer Goodman / The South Florida Sun Sentinel

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