Verónica Zaragovia
Health Care Reporter
Verónica Zaragovia was born in Cali, Colombia, and grew up in South Florida. She’s been a lifelong WLRN listener and is proud to cover health care for the station. Verónica has a bachelor’s degree in political science and a master's degree in journalism. For many years, Veronica lived out of a suitcase (or two) in New York City, Tel Aviv, Hong Kong, Las Vegas, D.C., San Antonio and Austin, where she worked as the statehouse and health care reporter with NPR member station KUT.
In 2016, she received a Robert Bosch Foundation Fellowship and moved to Germany’s capital city of Berlin where she lived for several years, working as a freelance reporter and radio instructor to American college students at the Center for International Educational Exchange (CIEE). In between that time, she also spent six months in Colombia, reporting on the peace treaty between the Colombian government and the former FARC guerrilla group, with the support of a grant from the Pulitzer Center.
Verónica speaks English and Spanish fluently and can converse in French, German and Hebrew. She loves warm weather and friendly, diverse people, and that’s why Miami will always be home.
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Florida’s Department of Health recently switched from sharing daily COVID-19 reports to weekly ones. Dr. Jason Salemi, a professor of epidemiology at the University of South Florida College of Public Health, spoke with WLRN about the changes. -
In May, Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber and three other city commissioners temporarily changed the last call for alcohol sales from 5 a.m. to 2 a.m., a change that affects businesses on Ocean Drive and Collins Avenue from Fifth to 15th Streets. The Clevelander Hotel then sued the city, largely because of the impact to its business.
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A lot of people use TikTok to show short videos of a dance move or a cooking tip, but Coral Gables Senior High student Abigail Felan, 16, and her colleagues at New Voters are using it to promote getting protected against COVID-19 with a vaccine.
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Black women are three times more likely to die after giving birth than white women. That disparity is prompting Black women to seek Black ob-gyns, and medical schools are adding antiracist training.
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Florida is lagging behind most states when it comes to getting people vaccinated against COVID-19. Miami-Dade County is working on boosting numbers.
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We have listed advice below on how to go about getting your second shot in South Florida. This guidance will likely change and we'll continue to update this post as we receive new information.
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In Miami, as vaccinations slow, officials are coming up with new ways to make them easier to get, particularly for immigrants and busy working people.
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Florida needs to get many more people vaccinated in order to reach what’s called community immunity. So far, roughly 45% of people 16 and older have gotten at least one COVID-19 shot in the state.
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Miami-Dade County is still not cutting people’s water service or collecting late fees for those who haven’t been able to pay their bill, but the county is asking for donations to an emergency fund called WASD Cares, in order to avoid water shutoffs in the future.
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Hundreds of students in Florida's second-largest school district stopped going to class during the pandemic. Some have switched districts without informing their schools, some didn't have computers or internet access and others had to stay home to take care of siblings.
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Miami-Dade County organized a pop-up event to vaccinate people against COVID-19 at PortMiami on Wednesday.
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Demand is dropping for COVID-19 vaccines, the reason cited by Broward Health for stopping its first-dose vaccinations after April 23. Jackson Health System will do the same later this month. Still, officials have efforts underway to make sure people still get vaccinated.
