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Coronavirus Live Updates: Florida Residents 60 And Up Qualify For Shots Next Week

Dr. Daniel Carvajal, 34, draws a syringe with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at The Palace Renaissance & Royale, an assisted living facility in Kendall, on Wednesday, January 13, 2021. Vaccines were available Wednesday for The Palace residents and staff.
MATIAS J. OCNER MOCNER@MIAMIHERALD.COM
/
The Miami Herald
Dr. Daniel Carvajal, 34, draws a syringe with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at The Palace Renaissance & Royale, an assisted living facility in Kendall, on Wednesday, January 13, 2021. Vaccines were available Wednesday for The Palace residents and staff.

This post will be updated today, Monday, March 8, 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

New Age For Vaccines: Florida Residents 60 And Up Qualify For Shots Next Week

Updated Monday 3:25 p.m.

If you’re 60 or older, you’re almost in luck. Starting Monday, the eligibility age for COVID vaccination in Florida will drop.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he will lower the age for COVID vaccination in Florida from 65 to 60, a move that would make about 2 million more people in the state eligible.

“We are starting to see demand soften a little bit,” DeSantis said at a news briefing in Tallahassee. “Appointments at pharmacies used to be taken in minutes. Now appointment windows are open 10 minutes or longer.”

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

— By Cindy Krischer Goodman / Sun Sentinel

Florida Adds More Than 3,300 New Cases, 81 New Resident Deaths

Updated Monday at 3:20 p.m.

Florida’s Department of Health confirmed an additional 3,312 positive cases of COVID-19 Monday. The state has a total of 1,948,307 confirmed positive cases, according to the state's health department.

Monday's update also included the announcement of 81 new resident deaths, increasing the statewide number of Floridians who died to 31,764. Factoring in non-resident deaths the number of deaths due to COVID-19 is 32,349.

Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties make up 10,559 of those reported deaths. Monroe County has reported 46 deaths due to COVID-19.

— WLRN News

‘Real-life Monopoly.’ Eligible Residents Turned Away At Miami-Dade Vaccine Sites Amid Chaos

Updated Monday at 11 a.m.

It took more than five hours of waiting in the sun with her 6-month-old baby and being rejected by five different staffers at Florida City’s federal vaccination site for Yanira Vázquez to finally get her COVID-19 shot.

Vázquez, who is a caregiver for a patient with Down Syndrome, said she was turned away because the note she had from her patient’s pediatrician confirming her eligibility for a vaccine was on her phone and it was not printed. According to a Miami Herald reporter who witnessed it, Vázquez was screamed at by at least one volunteer at the site.

The only reason Vázquez was able to get her vaccine on Sunday at the site, a day after staff vaccinated hundreds of ineligible Florida residents 18 years or older — including some Miami Herald reporters who heard about it on social media — was that she stuck around long enough to speak to a different nurse who was compassionate and accepted her proof of employment.

Read more from our news partner at The Miami Herald.

— By Bianca Padro Ocasio / Miami Herald

Rule Change At MDC North Vaccine Site. At-Risk With A Doctor’s Note Won’t Be Turned Away

Updated Monday at 7:02 a.m

In a sudden reversal, the Miami Dade College North vaccination site won’t be turning away at-risk people under 65 who don’t have the medical form required by the state, but do have a doctor’s note.

The doctors’ notes will now be accepted at the site, which opened Wednesday as the first location in South Florida established by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

On Friday, FEMA altered the rules for what documentation people under 65 who are vulnerable needed to get the vaccine at MDC North, 11380 NW 27th Ave.

Read more from our news partner at The Miami Herald.

— By Devoun Cetoute and Doug Hanks / The Miami Herald

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