Florida News that impacts you – April 27th, 2021
Bottom Line: Your daily recap of the some of the biggest news from around the state that impacts you in South Florida.
- The good news regarding Florida’s coronavirus trend continued Monday as only 3,513 new COVID-19 cases were reported by the Florida Department of Health. Florida’s weekly trend for daily cases has fallen to 5,565 – the lowest since April 6th and about 1,200 fewer cases per day over just a week ago.
- Nearly 8.6 million Floridians have now been vaccinated with at least a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine including 5.8 million who’ve now completed a vaccine series. 532,789 Floridians have been vaccinated with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine which is now back in use.
- Florida has gained an Electoral College vote and an additional seat in the House of Representatives based on the 2020 Census. Florida now has 30 Electoral College votes – the third highest total and will have 28 seats in the House of Representatives after the 2022 midterm elections. Florida has gained at least one representative in every Census since 1930.
- The state legislature has agreed to a budget for the 2021-2022 fiscal year. The budget agreement is set to top $100 billion for the first time – driven in part by $6.6 billion in COVID-relief funds from the federal government. The agreement includes $1,000 payments to hospitality workers who lost work due to lockdowns and $25,000 grants for qualifying small businesses negatively impacted by the pandemic. $1,000 bonuses would be paid to emergency medical technicians, firefighters, nurses, police officers, prison guards and teachers. Florida does retain a line-item veto which Governor DeSantis has used previously used.
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