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Florida entered this week with the lowest trend for new COVID-19 cases in over a month, averaging 17,437 new daily cases over the past week. As for COVID-19 hospitalizations, the trend continued to decrease through the weekend. As of Monday, 13,773 COVID-19 hospitalizations were reported statewide. That’s a decline of nearly 4,000 patients since the peak just over two weeks ago.
While school mask mandates without a parental opt-out remain illegal in Florida, the state’s appeal of Leon County Circuit Court Judge John Cooper’s ruling immediately stayed on appeal, Alachua, Broward, and Orange counties have filed a lawsuit challenging the Florida Board of Education’s mandate for parental opt-outs. Alachua and Broward were the first counties to receive funding reductions as a result of violating the state’s policy.
In other news, doctor Linda Marraccini of South Miami has become the first in the state to refuse service to patients who haven’t been vaccinated for COVID-19. According to Dr. Marraccini, "I understand that people are free to choose, but to me, it’s a problem when it affects other people. When it comes to the safety of others when it comes to the fact that it’s a global health problem and community health problem, at this point, I really say that this is where it draws the line in the sand for me". She’ll begin denying service to unvaccinated patients on September 15th. This potentially sets up a showdown with the state which has announced a fine of up to $5,000 per instance of unvaccinated people being denied service effective September 16th.