Julio Ochoa
Julio Ochoa is editor of Health News Florida.
He comes to WUSF from The Tampa Tribune, where he began as a website producer for TBO.com and served in several editing roles, eventually becoming the newspaper’s deputy metro editor.
Julio was born and raised in St. Petersburg, and received a bachelor’s degree from Florida State University. He earned a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Colorado and worked at a paper in Greeley, Colo., before returning to Florida as a reporter and as breaking news editor for the Naples Daily News.
Contact Julio at 813-974-8633, on Twitter at @julioochoa or email .
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The emergency order follows the closure of parts of U.S. 41 in Manatee and Hillsborough counties and the evacuation of homes and businesses in the area. -
State health officials reported 7,087 new COVID-19 cases, Wednesday and 127 deaths. Governor Ron DeSantis says he’s expecting a surge in vaccine doses coming to Florida in the coming weeks and that teachers, firefighters and law enforcement officers 50 and older could be next in line to receive the vaccine. DeSantis says he’s also targeting rural counties with relatively low rates of seniors vaccinated such as DeSoto and Hardy and Glades Counties in Southwest Florida. Advocates in Sarasota are fighting to get more vaccine doses to people of color as just 1% of Blacks and 1.5% of Hispanics in the County have received the vaccine. The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a complaint filed against Manatee County Commission Chairwoman Vanessa Baugh over alleged misuse of her position in cherry-picking who would receive vaccine doses at a state-run pop-up clinic last week in Lakewood Ranch. The Venice Fire Rescue Department is looking to expand its outreach through a state pilot program aimed at getting vaccines to eligible homebound residents. -
Health experts say when test results are delayed it impacts contact tracing and quarantine efforts that help prevent the disease from spreading. -
State officials were unable to release data about the virus on Saturday after it received about 400,000 previously-reported COVID-19 test results from a private lab. -
Sunday marked the fourth consecutive day state health officials documented more than 3,000 new cases of the coronavirus in Florida in a single day.The Florida Department of Health reported a new record high number of daily cases of COVID-19, Saturday, with 4,049 cases. On Sunday health officials reported another 3,494 new cases bringing the statewide total to 97,291 cases.Since Friday, state health officials have reported 40 new coronavirus-related deaths increasing the statewide death toll to 3,144 fatalities. -
Pinellas County's beaches were busy Monday, on the first day that people were allowed to return to the sand. -
The state is now releasing information about the number of patients and staff who have COVID-19 in individual nursing homes. -
The number of cases of COVID-19 in Florida increased by 739 on Saturday, pushing the state past 25,000 cases. -
Florida’s largest health insurer is waiving out-of-pocket costs for members who need treatment for COVID-19. -
A Manatee County patient has become the state’s seventh fatality from the coronavirus, state officials announced on Tuesday.
