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 Alone Among Most Populous States By Publishing COVID Numbers Once A Week
Updated Tuesday at 3:45 p.m.
Florida is an outlier among the nation’s most populous states in failing to issue daily reports that detail new coronavirus cases, deaths and vaccination rates, a review on Monday found.
In announcing on Friday that it would provide only weekly updates, Florida became the first among the nation's eight most populous states — and possibly the only one in the country — that doesn't provide daily information on the state of the pandemic.
Some less populated states, such as Oklahoma and New Mexico, have switched to a weekly or bi-weekly schedule, but both provide new data on cases each day, according to their websites.
Read more at the Palm Beach Post.
— By Jane Musgrave / Palm Beach Post
Rebekah Jones’ Twitter Account Suspended, Citing ‘Platform Manipulation,’ ‘Spam’
Updated Tuesday at 6:15 a.m.
Rebekah Jones, who formerly maintained Florida’s COVID-19 dashboard but was fired last year as she raised concerns about transparency, was suspended Monday from Twitter for “platform manipulation and spam.”
The suspension comes after Jones repeatedly shared a recent Miami Herald article about law enforcement officers raiding her home, her observations during her time at the Florida Department of Health and more.
Twitter notified Jones that it received an appeal from her regarding the state of her account, according to a screenshot that Jones sent to the Herald.
— By Dana Cassidy and Ana Ceballos / The Miami Herald
Read more from our news partner at The Miami Herald
Norwegian Threatens To Defy DeSantis With Fully Vaccinated Cruises
Updated Tuesday at 6:04 a.m.
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings announced Monday that it plans to resume cruising from Miami in August with fully vaccinated passengers, a plan that threatens to defy orders of Gov. Ron DeSantis and creates yet more uncertainty about one of South Florida’s most important tourist draws.
The cruise line’s announcement offered no indication that DeSantis has agreed to exempt cruise lines from his edict banning businesses from requiring vaccines, nor did it suggest that any sort of compromise had been reached between Norwegian and the governor.
Instead, it creates confusion about plans of cruise lines that in recent days have announced diverging strategies for resuming operations — with some planning test voyages, some requiring vaccines and some welcoming people on board with masks and social distancing.
— By Ron Hurtibise / The South Florida Sun Sentinel
Read more from our news partner at The South Florida Sun Sentinel
Fewer Americans Than Ever During COVID Pandemic Still Social Distancing, Poll Finds
Updated Tuesday at 6:00 a.m.
Fewer Americans are social distancing and wearing masks during the COVID-19 pandemic after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released its updated guidance on masks.
A new Gallup poll released Monday found that 22% of Americans are social distancing from non-household people, which is down from 30% in April and 48% in January.
Forty percent of respondents said they were “still isolating partially or a little” and 38% — the highest percentage to date — said they weren’t social distancing at all.
— By Summer Lin / The Miami Herald
Read more from our news partner at The Miami Herald
