COVID and vaccine live updates: What you should know in South Florida on Aug. 13
COVID-19 cases are rising in Florida, fueled by the spread of the more contagious delta variant.
We’re seeing long lines at testing sites again. Lines for vaccines are short and the shots are easier to find, too. Besides county-run sites, many pharmacies have Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines in stock.
Some places are issuing mask mandates, requiring employees to get vaccinated or imposing other COVID-19 protocols to help stop the disease spread.
Here’s what else you should know about COVID-19 in South Florida:
What’s new?
▪ The surge of COVID-19 cases across the country is threatening to upend the midterm election strategies Democrats and Republicans had planned. The issues each party planned to focus on are once again taking the backseat to a deadly virus that has proven unpredictable, as debates over vaccine and mask mandates return.
▪ Vaccinations, which provide protection against severe illness, hospitalization and death, remains uneven among Floridians depending on their race. Health department data shows that Florida’s Black residents — who account for 16% of all COVID-19 deaths and 14% of cases while making up 17% of the population — make up the smallest share of all vaccinated residents in Florida.
▪ Miami-Dade County Public Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho will be giving his annual back-to-school address at 10 a.m. Friday inside Miami Senior High’s auditorium. The event was originally planned to be held at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County but the district had to pivot because of the resurgence of COVID-19 in the state.
If you missed it
▪ Florida reported 20,656 more COVID-19 cases to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state also reported 357 new deaths over the pandemic. The jump in cases and deaths are a sum of many changes to previous daily totals the CDC made Thursday. It now publishes cases and deaths based on the date of occurrence — instead of the date that it was reported to the agency.
