Jacob Ogles
Manatee County on Tuesday became the third in Southwest Florida to surpass 20,000 reported cases of COVID-19. More than 1 in 20 residents in the county have been infected at some point, starting with Florida’s first coronavirus case back in March.
The 10-county region as a whole has seen more than 116,000 diagnoses, and nearly 2,400 resident deaths.
But health officials on Tuesday focused on more promising news, as the first shipments of vaccines arrived at suburban hospitals along Florida’s Gulf Coast. The Manatee County Public Safety Department announced it had set up its first vaccination “pod,” a pop-up station where first responders will be among the first to be inoculated beginning Tuesday.
In neighboring Sarasota County, officials at Sarasota Memorial Hospital announced the first 9,600 doses of Moderna’s vaccine had arrived, and the hospital began vaccinating health care workers midday.
Sarasota County has seen fewer infections than Manatee County (17,110 compared to 20,623) but more deaths (468 to 405).
The lead county in region, though, remains the most populous, Lee County. There have been 37,507 diagnosed cases of COVID-19 there, with 643 deaths. The county saw Florida’s first COVID-19 death, a woman who died when there were just 16 known cases in the state.
That’s a far different situation than Florida sees now. On Tuesday alone, the Department of Health reported another 10,000 cases and 76 confirmed deaths, bringing Florida’s total caseload to 1,223,015 and its death toll to 21,052.
The FDA so far has authorized the use of vaccines from Moderna and from Pfizer. The first dispatched in Florida went to metropolitan hospitals, serving the communities where the greatest concentrations of COVID-19 patients live.
But that’s changing. Lee Health officials shared video of freezer trucks of vaccines arriving at Fort Myers facilities. Further south, NCH Healthcare System officials in Naples told WINK News it is expecting 2,600 vials of the Moderna vaccine to arrive by the end of the day.
Collier County, with a mix of senior communities around Naples and farm worker camps in Immokalee, has seen some of the worst infection rates in the state, with about 5.5% of the total population diagnosed with COVID-19 at some point this year. In total, 21,050 individuals have tested positive, more than in more populous counties like Sarasota and Manatee. About 321 have died.
