Florida
BA2 variant causing rise in Florida’s COVID cases, hospitalizations
![BA2 variant causing rise in Florida’s COVID cases, hospitalizations BA2 variant causing rise in Florida’s COVID cases, hospitalizations](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2022/04/19/NCHE/ade4a2f9-a00f-4e35-a4c5-780826cf6919-iStock-1298939283.jpg?width=660&height=440&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp)
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Coronavirus-positive sufferers are filling up Florida’s hospitals as soon as once more, however their numbers stay smaller than earlier than the unique omicron wave engulfed the state.
Medical workers statewide tended to a mean of 738 COVID-positive sufferers this week, knowledge launched Friday by the U.S. Well being and Human Providers Division reveals. That is larger than the week earlier than, however nonetheless decrease than the four-digit ranges recorded in late November and early December.
HHS additionally reported a mean of 92 adults per day this week in intensive care models in Florida, the bottom degree on document.
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Is one other wave of COVID coming? COVID-19: Here is what consultants say to anticipate as BA.2 omicron subvariant spreads throughout Florida
Well being officers have been documenting an increase in new infections since mid-March, however the post-omicron variety of COVID-positive hospital sufferers hasn’t risen till this week.
Florida has logged a mean of 18,186 new instances every week since April 8, the final time state well being officers revealed a report on coronavirus statistics. That is the very best weekly improve in case counts since Feb. 25, on the tail finish of the unique omicron wave.
Well being consultants have mentioned they anticipate the present coronavirus wave to be much less extreme than earlier ones as a result of most individuals have both been vaccinated or contaminated with the pathogen’s primary omicron pressure. Most new infections are brought on by omicron subvariants.
The state Well being Division has logged 5,899,188 instances for the reason that pandemic started.
About 6.1% of COVID-19 assessments have come again constructive up to now week, the Well being Division reported Friday, a rise from 3.8% two weeks in the past.
Subvariant of BA.2 as much as 19% of instances within the U.S.
Omicron subvariant BA.2 stays the dominant pressure within the southeastern United States. It includes about 72% of assessments within the Southeast that detect variants, the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention reported April 16.
However the rapidly rising BA.2 descendant BA.2.12.1 includes about 19% of instances, practically double the estimated 11% recorded April 9.
Florida’s loss of life toll elevated by a mean of 146 victims per week in between April 8 and Friday. That is the lowest weekly improve since Dec. 24.
The variety of new deaths has slowed since February. However fatalities can take weeks to be processed and added to official statistics.
How many individuals in Florida are vaccinated? How secure are Floridians from COVID? State overcounts vaccinations by 600,000 individuals
Anti-vax vacationers eye Florida:Throwing some chilly water on Florida as a scorching vacation spot for anti-vax vacationers
Florida well being officers lower the state’s vaccination rely by 1,292 individuals between April 8 and Friday. The state Well being Division provided no clarification after they launched their biweekly report after 5 p.m. Friday.
The official whole variety of Floridians vaccinated has barely budged up to now two weeks, sitting at slightly below 15.5 million with at the very least one shot, masking 76% of inoculation-eligible residents ages 5 and older.
That features practically 5.2 million individuals with boosters, or about one in 4 vaccine-eligible residents.
However the official counts for whole vaccinations is at the very least 600,000 larger than it ought to be as a result of vaccine suppliers have erroneously recorded non-residents as residents. Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration has mentioned it has no plans to analyze.
Chris Persaud is The Palm Seashore Publish’s knowledge reporter. Electronic mail him at cpersaud@pbpost.com.
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Florida
Virginia boy charged with making swatting calls to Florida schools
![Virginia boy charged with making swatting calls to Florida schools Virginia boy charged with making swatting calls to Florida schools](https://assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com/hub/i/r/2023/05/12/eb3046d8-ea20-4c77-8309-3c5a737d47ab/thumbnail/1200x630/2b74a63547c55893dab4e6dc31a92f8d/south-broward-high-school.jpg?v=5501038cbc281520ff9fdc308faab7dc)
An 11-year-Virginia boy has been charged in Florida with calling in more than 20 bomb or shooting threats to schools and other places, authorities said Thursday.
Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly said that authorities worked hard to find the caller before the school year resumes.
“This kid’s behavior was escalating and becoming more dangerous,” Staly said. “I’m glad we got him before he escalated out of control and hurt someone.”
Swatting is slang for making a prank call to emergency services in an attempt to send a SWAT team or other armed police officers to a particular place.
Flagler County emergency services initially received a bomb threat at Buddy Taylor Middle School on May 14, officials said. Additional threats were made between then and May 22.
Investigators tracked the calls to a home in Henrico County, Virginia, just outside Richmond. Local deputies searched the home this month, and the 11-year-old boy who lived there admitted to placing the Florida swatting calls, as well as a threat made to the Maryland State House, authorities said. Investigators later determined that the boy also made swatting calls in Nebraska, Kansas, Alabama, Tennessee and Alaska.
The boy faces 29 felony counts and 14 misdemeanors, officials said. He’s being held in a Virginia juvenile detention facility while Florida officials arrange for his extradition. Investigators didn’t immediately say whether the boy had a connection to Florida.
A 13-year-old boy was arrested in Florida in May, several days after the initial call, for making a copycat threat to Buddy Taylor Middle School.
Florida
Is there a sunken nuclear bomb near Florida? Here’s what to know
![Is there a sunken nuclear bomb near Florida? Here’s what to know Is there a sunken nuclear bomb near Florida? Here’s what to know](https://res.cloudinary.com/graham-media-group/image/upload/f_auto/q_auto/c_thumb,w_700/v1/media/gmg/W6DCEII3XJBRTEXKRZYYCQLLWQ.jpg?_a=DATAdtfiZAA0)
TYBEE ISLAND, Ga. – Off the coast of Georgia, a massive bomb potentially sits in the water after having been flown out from Florida decades prior.
According to NPR, the whole incident began in 1958 when a B-47 bomber plane took off from Homestead AFB in Florida with the 7,600-pound nuclear bomb in tow, heading out to meet up with another bomber for a training exercise.
HOW DID IT HAPPEN?
The plan was to reportedly simulate an attack on the Soviet Union as part of the exercise, and everything was going well — until another training mission mistakenly crashed into the B-47 carrying the bomb.
As a result, the pilot chose to let loose the bomb over the water off Tybee Island in Georgia before making an emergency landing in a nearby swamp.
The bomb didn’t go off even after dropping into the ocean below, though that could be because the nuclear material needed to set such bombs off was typically kept separate from the weapon until it was needed, the BBC reports.
DID THEY FIND IT?
Federal officials spent over two weeks searching for the bomb in the aftermath, but it was ultimately determined to be irretrievable.
While a receipt written by the pilot shows that the necessary capsule wasn’t added to the bomb before the training exercise — meaning it wouldn’t be at a huge risk of detonation — other federal officials have claimed otherwise, such as a former Assistant Secretary of Defense W.J. Howard, who claimed that the bomb was “complete.”
“He concluded that despite our best efforts, the possibility of an accidental nuclear explosion still existed,” a declassified report reads.
Nowadays, the bomb is thought to be covered by several feet of silt on the seabed, but if the explosives within are still intact, it could pose a major hazard to the environment. As such, federal officials have determined that it should be left undisturbed — even by further recovery attempts.
CAN AN ATOMIC BOMB GO OFF UNDERWATER?
If it’s actually off the coast of Tybee Island, then yes: the bomb can still detonate, even underwater.
In 1946, the U.S. tested an atomic bomb at the Bikini Atoll — in the Pacific Ocean far southwest of Hawaii — by suspending it below several ships filled with pigs and rats.
After it was set off underwater, nearly all of the animals died, either thanks to the initial explosion or from the radiation poisoning afterward. And the area is still irradiated to this day.
WHAT HAPPENS IF IT DETONATES?
For starters: it doesn’t appear as likely that the bomb will explode.
While Howard initially claimed the bomb was complete, a military spokesman told The Atlantic in 2001 that they’d spoken with him, and “he agreed that his memo was in error.”
But if the bomb did manage to get outfitted with a plutonium trigger and detonated, it would erupt into an explosion with a mile-wide radius — and thermal radiation reaching 10 times that distance, according to the Savannah Morning News.
That would no doubt cause havoc within the immediate proximity, but on the bright side, Tybee Island is well over 100 miles (roughly a two-hour drive) from Florida’s border. This means Florida residents have little to fear from the direct impacts of such an explosion.
So you can sleep tight knowing you’re not likely to find yourself on the worse end of a nuclear weapon.
That being said, there are still plenty of other scary things in Florida to keep you up at night.
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Florida
Trulieve adds $5M to recreational marijuana campaign in Florida
![Trulieve adds M to recreational marijuana campaign in Florida Trulieve adds M to recreational marijuana campaign in Florida](https://images.foxtv.com/static.fox35orlando.com/www.fox35orlando.com/content/uploads/2023/06/1280/720/GettyImages-455527934.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The medical cannabis company Trulieve has contributed another $5 million to a campaign to allow recreational marijuana in Florida, according to a newly filed finance report.
The company made the contribution on July 15 to the Smart & Safe Florida political committee, which is leading efforts to pass a recreational marijuana initiative on the November ballot.
MORE HEADLINES:
According to a state Division of Elections database, Trulieve had contributed about $60.39 million to the committee as of July 19.
The committee raised a total of $66.475 million in cash and nearly $129,000 in in-kind contributions, and it spent $53.963 million.
The initiative, which will appear on the ballot as Amendment 3, says, in part, that it would allow “adults 21 years or older to possess, purchase, or use marijuana products and marijuana accessories for nonmedical personal consumption by smoking, ingestion, or otherwise.”
Voters in 2016 passed a constitutional amendment that allowed medical marijuana.
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