Venice City Council

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.

State health officials reported 4,115 new COVID-19 cases, Wednesday, for a total of 790,426 cases. The Florida Department of Health also reported 66 new coronavirus related deaths, Oct. 28, increasing the statewide death toll to 16,775 fatalities.Over the past seven days, the single-day average number of new infections reported stands at 3,983 cases. The average number of daily deaths reported over the past week comes to nearly 52 fatalities a day.

State Health officials reported 2,521 new COVID-19 cases Sunday bringing Florida's total to 683,754 cases. The Florida Department of Health also reported nine new coronavirus-related deaths, Sept. 20, bringing the statewide death toll to 13,459 fatalities.Of the 5,102,203 COVID-19 tests that have been reported in Florida so far, the overall positivity rate stands at 13.4%. The latest single day positivity rate stands at 4.62%.

State health officials reported 9,440 new cases of COVID-19, Tuesday, increasing Florida's total to 369,834 cases. The Florida Department of Health also reported 134 coronavirus-related deaths, yesterday, bringing the statewide death toll to 5,206 fatalities.Tuesday marked the 28th consecutive day that Florida experienced a single-day increase of at least 5,000 new cases.