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FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) – A day after Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava announced that there is now a mask mandate for indoor areas of county-owned facilities, Broward is following suit.
Broward Mayor Steve Geller said Thursday the county would announce a mask mandate for indoor areas of their county-owned buildings. He added that while they don’t have the authority to require masks in all indoor areas, he said he wouldn’t hesitate if they did.
“I’m very scared and I’m also very angry. This pandemic, people are getting hospitalized, they’re dying, and it’s almost entirely preventable,” said Geller.
The mayor said those hospitalized and dying from the virus are mostly unvaccinated.
“Ninety nine percent or so of people dying are unvaccinated, 97 percent or more of the people being hospitalized are unvaccinated and that’s in a county where the majority of people are already vaccinated,” said Geller.
He said for those holding off on getting vaccinated, or don’t plan to get one at all, the time to act is now.
“Right now, as far as we know, the existing COVID vaccines work for the Delta variant. If it keeps spreading there will be some Greek letter (variant) where the vaccines aren’t working so well,” said Geller.
Meanwhile, the long lines for coronavirus tests are back.
As we’re seeing the fourth COVID wave move in, people are anxious to get tested again.
“I’ve been here for 45 minutes, it’s just a huge circle, I’ve noticed, you just go in a huge circle and it’s crazy,” said Emma Downing as she waited in line at Mills Pond Park.
Downing works at a pre-school. She said right now she has a cold, so needs a test before going back. She’s not too concerned that it’s COVID but plans on making a few changes.
“I’m fully vaccinated so I didn’t think I needed to wear a mask. It’s been like two weeks, I haven’t worn a mask and now I’m sick. So I know I’m going to be wearing masks a lot more now,” said Downing.
More people will be wearing masks in the coming days as the numbers continue to rise. While Florida is not releasing daily numbers anymore, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control is. According to the latest tally, on Tuesday Florida reported there were more than 16-thousand new cases, that’s up from 13-hundred a month earlier.
As cases continue to rise, so will wait times at test sites.
“A few weeks ago, before we saw this spike in numbers, you could get in and out without a wait. But as you see now, there’s a wait and it varies depending on the time of day and demand. We’re seeing lines again even before the site even opens,” test site spokesman Mike Jachles.
According to the CDC, 62 percent of Broward has received at least one dose of a vaccine and just over 51 percent is fully vaccinated.
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