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Old 08-23-2021, 10:08 AM
 
8,449 posts, read 4,702,340 times
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Sarasota mask mandate for all students, school staff goes into effect today

https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/...ks/8239269002/

An emergency rule passed by the Sarasota County School Board on Friday mandating masks for all students and staff in schools goes into effect on Monday, although the district is slow-rolling the implementation over the next week to give families time to adapt.

It is not clear at this point what will happen if students do not comply. On Monday morning district spokesman Craig Maniglia said he anticipated it would likely be treated as a dress code violation.

The district sent home an opt-out form that would have to be signed by a licensed health care provider to opt out of mask wearing.

Maniglia said the district is stocking up on masks this week and that it will be an ongoing conversation with students and parents about the need to mask.

Parents attending the board meeting on Friday chanted "we will not comply," and the Sarasota Moms for Liberty chapter, which advocates for masks to remain a parents' decision, posted a call for parents to bring their child to school without a mask on Monday.

Sarasota Military Academy, one of the district's largest charter schools, announced that masks would remain optional at the school's two campuses.

Sarasota High government teacher Christy Karwatt said it appeared maybe one third of students on campus were wearing masks Monday, which was a major increase from the previous two weeks.

A teacher at North Port High estimated roughly 50% to 60% of the school was complying with the new rule, but he said about a quarter of the school was absent due to positive COVID-19 cases and quarantines.
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Old 08-23-2021, 10:16 AM
 
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FDA grants full approval to Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, opening door to more vaccine mandates

https://news.google.com/articles/CAI...S&ceid=US%3Aen

The US Food and Drug Administration on Monday granted full approval to the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for people age 16 and older. This is the first coronavirus vaccine approved by the FDA, and is expected to open the door to more vaccine mandates.

"The vaccine has been known as the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, and will now be marketed as Comirnaty, for the prevention of COVID-19 disease in individuals 16 years of age and older," the FDA said in its announcement on Monday.

"The vaccine also continues to be available under emergency use authorization (EUA), including for individuals 12 through 15 years of age and for the administration of a third dose in certain immunocompromised individuals," according to the FDA.
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Old 08-23-2021, 11:33 AM
 
8,449 posts, read 4,702,340 times
Reputation: 1670
Quote:
Originally Posted by wondermint2 View Post
Today's Update From Sarasota Memorial Hospital

274 Covid-19 patients hospitalized and an increase of 18 from Friday's total of 256 but a decrease of 10 from yesterday's record total of 284.

48 Covid-19 patients in the ICU (a decrease of 8 since yesterday's total of 56 ) - and a decrease of 6 from Friday's total of 54.

4 people died from Covid-19 at SMH over the past day

the 7-day test positivity ratio is 19.1%

unvaccinated Covid-19 patients at SMH is currently 90%

source:
https://www.smh.com/Home/News-Events...ly-news-update
Sarasota Memorial Hospital's COVID-19 death count spikes amid record cases

https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/...es/8240401002/

Sarasota Memorial Hospital reported 15 more COVID-19 deaths over the weekend, for a total of 56 since Aug. 6.
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Old 08-23-2021, 04:32 PM
 
8,449 posts, read 4,702,340 times
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Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office COVID-19 Outbreak Affects 10% Of Employees

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news...ees/ar-AANDYHM

A COVID-19 outbreak at the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office has impacted about 10 percent of the agency’s workforce and some employees are still coming to work despite testing positive for the virus, officials said.

As of Monday afternoon, 94 employees are out of work due to coronavirus symptoms and 60 have tested positive, Kaitlyn R. Perez, community affairs director, said.

The agency has 1,017 full-time positions currently staffed by 954 employees. This means nearly 10 percent of the sheriff’s office’s workforce is out sick.

“Please understand we have strongly urged anyone experiencing any type of symptom to stay home,” Perez said. “This includes fever or chills, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle or body aches, headache, new loss of taste or smell, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, nausea or vomiting, (and) diarrhea.”

The sheriff’s office is taking precautions during this surge in COVID-19 cases, she said. This includes deputies wearing masks in the courthouse and in the Sarasota County Jail when they are working closely with inmates.

At the jail, 48 inmates have recently tested positive for coronavirus, “almost all of which are asymptomatic,” Perez added.
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Old 08-23-2021, 05:09 PM
 
8,449 posts, read 4,702,340 times
Reputation: 1670
Mask mandate causing in-fighting among Sarasota school district leaders

https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/...te/8243943002/

Passing a mask mandate during a cantankerous Friday evening Sarasota County School Board meeting may have been the easy part for school district leaders.

Now administrators are trying to figure out how to implement it.

Superintendent Brennan Asplen emailed the School Board over the weekend, raising several questions and concerns about the new policy, going as far as describing it as "almost impossible."

Asplen asked the board several questions in an email over the weekend, including what administrators were supposed to do if students did not comply, if teachers were now expected to monitor who did and did not have a doctor's opt-out note and how to continue teaching children who refuse to wear masks.

"How do we control the optics if we turn away 1,000 students at a high school because they won’t wear a mask?" Asplen asked.

After an initial version of this story was published on heraldtribune.com Monday morning, Asplen issued a statement removing himself from the debate and vowing to implement the School Board's wishes.

"As I read the digital version of the Herald-Tribune (Monday) afternoon, I decided to make a statement concerning this article. As your Superintendent of Schools, the most important part of my position is the education and safety of all our students. It is not my role to choose a side on the mask debate, it is my responsibility to implement the polices of the School Board," he stated.

Part of Asplen's attempt to mend bridges with the School Board also springs from a dispute over the wording of a parental opt-out form that he proposed over the weekend.

Despite the board's preferred policy having no parent opt-out provision, Asplen sent proposed opt-out language to board members which would not have required any sort of medical professional verifying that a child needed a medical exemption.

Instead, parents could simply check a box saying their child was medically exempt.

Board Chairwoman Shirley Brown fired back in an email, telling Asplen that he needs to remember who's in charge.

"I'd like to remind both our superintendent and our attorney that they work for the School Board," Brown wrote in an email obtained by the Herald-Tribune. "When (the) school board adopts a policy, (you) should work to accommodate the policy, not your personal preferences."

Board member Jane Goodwin said the exemption form that Asplen originally proposed was not following the will of the policy that the board passed Friday.

"That was not the opt-out that he was instructed to use," Goodwin said. "That one did not have any teeth."

By noon on Monday School Board attorney Patrick Duggan would no longer represent the board on the dais, according to Brown. Duggan had cautioned the board that adopting a mask mandate could be inconsistent with state law, Gov. Ron DeSantis' executive order and administrative guidance from the departments of health and education.

Brown said Monday that Duggan's advice was "totally out of line" and that he didn't seem to have read the statute that he warned the board it would be violating.

"I’ve had some problems with Patrick from the beginning, not understanding that he works at the direction of the board, not the superintendent," Brown said.

The district is doing a slow rollout of the mask policy this week, giving parents time to opt out if they want to and reminding students of the new policy. Enforcement won't begin until next week.
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Old 08-24-2021, 10:15 AM
 
8,449 posts, read 4,702,340 times
Reputation: 1670
Today's Update From Sarasota Memorial Hospital

278 Covid-19 patients hospitalized today - an increase of 4 from yesterday's total of 274 (six shy of Sunday's record total of 284).

52 Covid-19 patients in the ICU (an increase of 4 since yesterday's total of 48 ).

5 people died from Covid-19 at SMH over the past day

the 7-day test positivity ratio is 19%

unvaccinated Covid-19 patients at SMH is currently 90%

source:
https://www.smh.com/Home/News-Events...ly-news-update
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Old 08-24-2021, 10:34 AM
 
8,449 posts, read 4,702,340 times
Reputation: 1670
Florida Hospitalizations & Deaths

IMO today's decline in Florida hospitalizations should be taken with a grain of salt because only 233 hospitals are reporting (it's usually about 260 hospitals reporting).

According to the Health & Human Services agency there are 17,088 hospitalizations today - a decline of 55 from yesterday's total of 17,143 Florida Covid-19 hospitalizations.

There are 3602 Florida Covid-19 patients in the ICU - that's an increase of 45 from yesterday's total of 3557. (239 hospitals reporting).

source:
https://protect-public.hhs.gov/pages...al-utilization

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

According to the NY Times as of August 23 the 7-day avg. for deaths in Florida is 228 deaths per day. This is an increase of 86% over the past 14 days.

source:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...vid-cases.html
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Old 08-24-2021, 10:50 AM
 
8,449 posts, read 4,702,340 times
Reputation: 1670
I came across this tidbit on Twitter which just goes to show how overloaded our local hospitals are:

"I live in Nokomis, FL. My neighbor's wife fell yesterday and he called an ambulance. They took her to Sarasota Memorial and were turned away. Then the paramedics took her south to Venice, and she's been on a gurney in the hall since yesterday afternoon."

https://mobile.twitter.com/paschof/s...86109913477126
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Old 08-24-2021, 11:04 AM
 
8,449 posts, read 4,702,340 times
Reputation: 1670
Quote:
Originally Posted by wondermint2 View Post
Today's Update From Sarasota Memorial Hospital

278 Covid-19 patients hospitalized today - an increase of 4 from yesterday's total of 274 (six shy of Sunday's record total of 284).

52 Covid-19 patients in the ICU (an increase of 4 since yesterday's total of 48 ).

5 people died from Covid-19 at SMH over the past day

the 7-day test positivity ratio is 19%

unvaccinated Covid-19 patients at SMH is currently 90%

source:
https://www.smh.com/Home/News-Events...ly-news-update
Sarasota Memorial reports 278 COVID-19 patients Tuesday, five more deaths

https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/...se/8254593002/

Sarasota Memorial Hospital reported Tuesday that five more patients had died of COVID-19.

There have been 61 COVID-19 deaths at the hospital since Aug. 6.

Sarasota Memorial Hospital is leasing a refrigerated trailer in case more space is needed to store dead bodies amid a surge of COVID-19 fatalities.

The trailer isn't currently in use, but hospital officials "want to be prepared in case we do see a surge of the deaths in the coming weeks," Sarasota Memorial spokeswoman Kim Savage said Monday.

The hospital had 278 COVID-19 patients Tuesday, compared to 274 Monday.

There are 52 COVID-19 patients in the hospital's intensive care unit, up from 48 Monday.

The hospital expanded it's ICU from 62 to 97 beds to accommodate the surge of COVID-19 patients. Currently, 60% of the ICU patients have COVID-19.

The vast majority - 90% - of Sarasota Memorial's COVID-19 patients are unvaccinated.

Sarasota Memorial has postponed elective surgeries to free up staff and space amid the surge of COVID-19 patients.

Dr. Manuel Gordillo, an infectious disease expert at Sarasota Memorial, is urging people to wear masks in crowded indoor spaces to try and limit the spread of the virus and relieve the strain on the hospital.

“Go back to the basics, masks indoors, get a good mask, Gordillo said in an interview released last week.

The hospital announced this week that it is giving employees $500 bonuses if they are fully vaccinated by Oct. 1, an effort to boost the staff vaccination rate above the current 70%

Before the current wave of infections, the largest number of COVID-19 patients at Sarasota Memorial was 130 on July 22, 2020. The hospital now has more than double that number of COVID-19 patients.

Hospitals throughout the state and region have been deluged with COVID-19 patients.
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Old 08-24-2021, 11:09 AM
 
8,449 posts, read 4,702,340 times
Reputation: 1670
Monoclonal antibody treatment center opens Tuesday in Englewood

https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/...er/8250619002/

ENGLEWOOD – A new, state-run, monoclonal antibody treatment site will open Tuesday and operate seven days a week at Tringali Park, where health workers can administer up to 320 doses of Regeneron to residents infected with COVID-19.

Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the opening Monday, in Englewood as part of a tour touting the openings of monoclonal antibody treatment centers in High Springs and Fort Pierce as well.
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