Florida News that impacts you – January 29th, 2021
Bottom Line: Your daily recap of the some of the biggest news from around the state that impacts you in South Florida.
Florida’s coronavirus trend has improved for four consecutive weeks. With 11,423 new COVID-19 cases reported, the weekly trend for new cases remains the lowest since December 30th.
Approximately 1.6 million Floridians have been vaccinated as of Thursday’s report from the Florida Department of Health. 49,267 vaccinations took place over the previous day. For the fourth time in in five days Florida fell short of the state’s goal of 60,000 vaccinations daily. For the second consecutive day more Floridians received a 2nd dose than a first dose. This underscores Governor DeSantis’s concerns that the state isn’t receiving first dose vaccines as rapidly as in previous weeks. A total of 1,319,822 Floridians have received a first dose and 247,330 Floridians have completed the two-dose schedule.
Governor DeSantis proposed a record setting $96.6 billion budget as he provided an optimistic view of Florida’s economic recovery from the pandemic. DeSantis’s top priorities from last year’s budget, education and the environment, remain top priorities with proposed record spending in both areas. Aside from general increases in existing government programs, the budget dubbed “Florida Leads” calls for the creation of a Resilient Florida grant system which would fund local government efforts to combat sea-level rise.
Approximately 1,500 fans were allowed to attend the Miami Heat game Thursday night at the American Airlines Arena. It’s the first-time fans were allowed to attend a Heat game since the onset of the pandemic. It also featured the first use of K-9's trained to detect COVID-19. The K-9's began to scan attendees approximately three hours in advance. It doesn’t appear as though any fans were determined to have been detected as COVID carriers by the K-9's.
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