During an afternoon news conference at the Palm Beach County Emergency Operations Center, county officials provided a COVID-19 update for county residents from the Florida Department of Health and the local medical community.
County Mayor Dave Kerner stated, “He understands we are fatigued and tired as a community and nation with COVID, data indicates that this is not a good time to relax our safeguards.”
The Health Care District of Palm Beach County is offering free, walk-up COVID-19 vaccinations Monday through Friday this week from 9AM to 4PM at:
o The Lantana Clinic parking lot at 1250 Southwinds Dr in Lantana; and
o Lakeside Medical Center’s parking lot at 39200 Hooker Hwy in Belle Glade.
It’s easy, convenient and no appointments are needed.
Commissioner Weinroth wants local businesses and organizations who are interested in hosting the Health Care District’s mobile vaccination clinic for their employees and clients to know they can visit HCDPBC.org, click the purple “Mobile Clinic Vaccination & Community Event Request” button and submit the completed form for review and approval.
The county and the state have also partnered to open up another public testing site at the Mid County Senior Center. The site is open from 9AM to 7PM and is located at 3680 Lake Worth Rd un Lake Worth Beach.
Weinroth went on to remind the public that there are many options available for residents to get testing.
Besides the many locations found on our website, www.PBCGov.com, most commercial pharmacies and physician’s offices are able to do COVID testing for little or no cost. In addition to providing testing, many of these locations also offer vaccines.
Dr. Alina Alonso, director of the Florida Department of Health-Palm Beach County gave some updates to our numbers.
As of Sunday, August 8, Palm Beach County had 790 confirmed new cases of coronavirus and our positivity rate was 16.4 percent. Our seven-day average is 16 percent.
Vaccinations rates are up since July 1st, in the age group 12-14 by 4 percent and the age group of 15-19 by 3 percent.
At this time, we are 67 percent vaccinated in Palm Beach County. “The only way out of this at this time is to vaccinate,” Dr. Alonso said. “We need to dispel rumors and encourage our neighbors, friends and family to get vaccinated.”
Dr. Raymond Golish, the Chief Medical Officer at JFK Medical Center stated, “the vast majority of people sick enough to require admission to the hospital are unvaccinated.”
Dr. Mazyar Rouhani, the Emergency Director at JFK Medical Center, stated, “the only way to decrease transmission is to get vaccinated.” He also stated that JFK had to increase their footprint to 96 beds to accommodate the increase in admissions, of which the majority are unvaccinated.
Residents are also reminded to mindful of a tropical wave that has a 70% chance of development within the next 5 days.
The track and intensity of the system is uncertain at this time. What we do know is that planning to go into a congregate shelter setting is not the best option during this resurgence of COVID-19 therefore, the county encourages residents who normally seek refuge in a shelter to consider making arrangements with friends and family members (outside of the normal evacuation zones) should a storm approach.