港澳天下彩staff continues to add to community resource lists, including this article on where kids and families can get food while schools are closed, and this post about whether and where to get tested for coronavirus.
The dedicated website for the Florida Department of Health, including information about symptoms and numbers of cases, can be found .
The dedicated website from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can be found .
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Monroe County Distributes $1 Million In CARES Act Money To Small Businesses
Updated Wednesday at 3:45 p.m.
More than 250 small businesses in the Keys have received a total of $1 million in CARES Act money.
A total of 577 applied, according to the county, and 259 were funded. Of those, 134 sole proprietors received $2,500, 109 businesses with between two and 10 employees got $5,000 and 16 businesses with 11-25 employees got $7,500.
The businesses included retail, food, galleries, charter fishing, salons, pool service and photographers.
Another $1 million will be available in a second round of grant funding 鈥� you can learn more about the county program . Businesses that were not funded in the first round can reapply.
The county also announced it will be opening a grant program for nonprofits later this month.
鈥擭ancy Klingener/港澳天下彩News
Statewide Coronavirus Cases Increase By 2,582 Resident Death Toll Reaches 14,904
Updated Wednesday at 11:15 a.m.
Florida surpassed 720,00 positive cases of COVID-19 as confirmed an additional 2,582 cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday.
Florida now has a total of 722,707 confirmed positive cases, according to the state's health department.
Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Broward counties make up 809 of the newly reported cases. Monroe County only added nine cases overall.
Wednesday鈥檚 update also included the announcement of 137 new resident deaths, increasing the statewide number of Floridians who died to 14,904.
鈥� By 港澳天下彩News
Long-Awaited Rapid COVID Test Kits Now Heading To Homes Of Florida鈥檚 Elders
Updated Tuesday at 7:47 a.m.
Florida nursing homes, assisted living facilities and elder communities will soon be able to conduct 15-minute, COVID-19 tests on staff, patients and even visitors each week as part of a long-awaited federal program, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Tuesday.
The governor last week said that the state would be getting 6.4 million of the Abbott BinaxNOW rapid tests after the federal government bought the company鈥檚 entire supply of 150 million. The weekly shipments will come in batches of 400,000.
On Tuesday, he said the state will distribute more than half of the weekly supply to homes for the state鈥檚 most vulnerable: 100,000 to long-term care facilities and 180,000 to other 鈥渟enior care communities.鈥� Of the remaining, 60,000 tests will go to state-run testing sites, and the other 60,000 tests will to school districts to screen 鈥渁ny student or teacher who developed symptoms and needs to be tested.鈥�
Read more from our news partner at .
鈥� By Mary Ellen Klas / The Miami Herald
A South Florida COVID-19 Vaccine Trial Is Recruiting Minority Participants. Will It Be Successful?
Updated Wednesday at 7:30 a.m.
Black Americans 鈥� disproportionately impacted by the new coronavirus 鈥� are necessary in vaccine trials but fear signing up to participate, wary about becoming 鈥済uinea pigs鈥� and not trusting researchers to have their best interests at heart, researchers say.
鈥淚nitially, they wanted to start testing vaccines in some countries in Africa, and I know a lot of African-Americans here who said 鈥楴o, I don鈥檛 like that. We don鈥檛 want that. We don鈥檛 trust them. Try it on other people first before trying it on us. We鈥檝e always been the ones to try it on and things always happen to us,'鈥� said Dr. Charan Donkor, a bariatric surgeon in Tamarac.
Medical professionals already have put programs in place to help protect their community. The National Medical Association, an organization for doctors and patients of African descent, started a COVID-19 task force in late September to address concerns and give advice to the Black community about the safety of the vaccine and its trials, as well as the current treatments for the coronavirus.
Read more from our news partner at .
鈥� By Amber Randall / The South Florida Sun Sentinel
