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COVID-19 infections once again on the rise in Florida

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COVID-19 infections once again on the rise in Florida


Florida’s pandemic respite seems to be over. COVID-19 infections are as soon as once more climbing throughout the state, and a brand new variant might be accountable.

The state recorded practically 3,000 instances per day, on common, over the newest seven-day interval from April 15 to Friday. That’s practically double the 1,600 common every day caseload from two weeks earlier, in line with information from the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention.

Florida’s positivity charge jumped to just about 8 % on April 18, the CDC reported. It’s the best stage seen in Florida since February — up from 4.2 % simply two weeks in the past.

Early within the pandemic, the World Well being Group advised that communities might resume regular actions solely after seeing 2 consecutive weeks of positivity charges beneath 5 %.

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Florida provides 20,860 COVID instances in previous week as infections climb

The state reported 133 deaths up to now week, down from the 155 deaths reported the week earlier than.

Florida has recorded a complete of 5.9 million infections and 73,822 deaths because the COVID-19 pandemic stretches into two years and two months.

The true variety of infections in current weeks is probably going a lot increased due to two essential components. At-home checks are actually extensively accessible however these outcomes will not be reported to state well being officers, in order that they don’t get counted when tabulating caseloads.

That implies that Florida’s case depend solely contains constructive check outcomes from medical settings like state-run testing websites, healthcare services and pharmacies. However up to now two weeks, Florida reported the fewest medical check outcomes since June 2020.

Some Floridians could also be unable to entry testing resulting from restricted public testing services, which might additionally end in an undercounting of instances.

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The rise in instances coincides with the emergence of a brand new COVID-19 variant known as BA.2.12.1. The brand new variant is a part of the omicron BA.2 household, and now accounts for practically one in 5 new infections within the Southeast, in line with the CDC.

New York state well being officers estimate that the brand new variant is about 23 to 27 % extra transmissible than BA.2 and could also be behind the current bump in instances in that state.

Florida Division of Well being spokesperson Jeremy Redfern wouldn’t touch upon whether or not the brand new variant was a priority, however mentioned that the division is “monitoring COVID-19 and conducting genomic sequencing to detect variants as a part of our total surveillance efforts.”

Throughout the state, hospitalizations are creeping again up as effectively, however not on the similar charge as instances.

Florida hospitals reported 746 confirmed COVID-19 sufferers on Friday, up practically 16 % over the previous two weeks. Hospitalizations are likely to lag behind infections by 2-3 weeks.

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Admissions from COVID-19 infections stay effectively beneath the height numbers that Tampa Bay area hospitals noticed throughout the omicron surge in November and December.

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BayCare officers reported treating 122 contaminated sufferers throughout their 15 hospitals within the Tampa Bay area as of Friday. That’s up from 99 one month in the past.

AdventHealth West Florida Division officers mentioned they’re caring for 30 COVID-19 sufferers amongst 13 hospitals between Ocala and Lake Placid, roughly the identical quantity as one month earlier.

Tampa Common Hospital was treating 17 sufferers for COVID-19 as of Friday, with three of these in intensive care.

How components of the U.S. test-to-treat COVID technique are failing

Getting vaccinated and boosted remains to be one of the simplest ways to stop extreme sickness, in line with CDC pointers. However vaccine efficacy wanes over time, and as much as 60 % of absolutely vaccinated Floridians are overdue for a booster, in line with CDC information.

In a press release launched final week, New York State Commissioner Mary T. Bassett urged New Yorkers to proceed masking in indoor areas and to check after a possible publicity to the virus.

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“Whereas these subvariants are new,” Bassett mentioned within the assertion, “the instruments to fight them will not be.”



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Florida

Virginia boy charged with making swatting calls to Florida schools

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Virginia boy charged with making swatting calls to Florida schools



CBS News Miami

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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.

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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.

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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.



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Is there a sunken nuclear bomb near Florida? Here’s what to know

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Is there a sunken nuclear bomb near Florida? Here’s what to know


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.

During an open house at Boeing Plant 2 in Seattle, Washington, people walk around to view the lineup of Boeing bomber planes. This lineup at the northend of Boeing Field includes the B-29, B-47 “Stratojet,” and the B-52 “Superfortress.” (Photo by © Museum of Flight/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images) (Museum of Flight/Getty Images)

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.

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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.

Tybee Island Lighthouse (Photo by J. Miers via Wikimedia/Creative Commons)

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.”

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“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.

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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.

The Baker test during Operation Crossroads, a series of two nuclear weapons tests conducted by the United States at Bikini Atoll. 25th July 1946. The purpose of the operation, which included two shots, ABLE and BAKER, was to investigate the effect of nuclear weapons on naval warships. Mushroom-shaped cloud and water column from the underwater Baker nuclear explosion. Photo taken from a tower on Bikini Island, 3.5 miles (5.6 km) away. Marshall Islands, Pacific. (PHoto by Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images) (2015 Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images)

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.

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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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Trulieve adds $5M to recreational marijuana campaign in Florida

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Trulieve adds M to recreational marijuana campaign in Florida


Stream FOX 35 News

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. 

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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. 

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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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