Coronavirus in Jacksonville: What you need to know for Monday, March 22

Duval County adds 12 more COVID-19 deaths

The Florida Department of Health recorded 12 more deaths in Duval County from COVID-19 in its daily report Sunday.

Duval County accounted for more than 35 percent of Florida's 32 newly-recorded fatalities from the coronavirus pandemic, with no county reporting a comparable increase. However, in many cases, the state has only listed deaths multiple days or weeks after the date when they occurred.

The six-county Northeast Florida region has now recorded 2,110 COVID-19 deaths. Florida's overall toll increased to 33,369, including 32,742 residents of the state.

The total case count stood at 2,008,349, an increase of 3,987 compared to Saturday's report. Florida officially recorded its 2 millionth COVID-19 positive test Saturday. | Read more

More:Need a COVID-19 vaccine? Here's how to get one in Northeast Florida

Three COVID-19 vaccines:Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson. What's the difference, anyway?

COVID-19 vaccine tracker:Track the vaccination efforts in Florida, elsewhere

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis lowers COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to 50 starting Monday

Having nearly reached the goal of vaccinating over two-thirds of Florida’s seniors, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Frid signed an executive order lowering the eligibility age to 50 starting Monday.

He also said the state could open vaccinations to all residents before May 1 who qualify under the emergency use authorization for the vaccines issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Meanwhile, the state expects an additional 42,000 doses of the much in-demand Johnson & Johnson single shot vaccine after a week of no shipments and uncertainty about future shipments. | Read more

'They were always, always together': Husband and wife were married 66 years. They died minutes apart of COVID-19.

Bill and Esther Ilnisky spent nearly seven decades together as Christian ministers and missionaries, including stints in the Caribbean and Middle East before preaching for 40 years in Florida.

They complemented each other – he the bookworm, she outgoing and charismatic. One without the other seemed unthinkable.

So when they died minutes apart of COVID-19 this month at a Palm Beach County hospice, it may have been a hidden blessing, their only child, Sarah Milewski, said – even if it was a devastating double loss for her. Her father was 88, her mom 92. Their 67th wedding anniversary would have been this weekend.

“It is so precious, so wonderful, such a heartwarming feeling to know they went together,” Milewski said, then adding, “I miss them.” | Read more

Exclusive: 1 in 4 Americans have seen Asians blamed for the coronavirus in recent weeks

One in four Americans, including nearly half of Asian Americans, in recent weeks have seen someone blame Asian people for the coronavirus epidemic, a new USA TODAY/Ipsos Poll finds.

The nationwide survey was taken Thursday and Friday, in the wake of last week's mass shooting in Georgia of eight people, six of them women of Asian descent. Reports across the country of physical assaults and verbal abuse against Asian Americans have spiked during the yearlong pandemic.

"My friend went to the supermarket and got bullied," said Pong Rattanakosum, 45, a health care worker from Los Angeles and an American of Thai descent who was polled. When he heard about the shooting in Georgia, "I felt, like, anger, and also anxious," he said in a follow-up interview. | Read more

'We got bored and wanted to go on a trip': Tales from a pandemic spring break in Cancun, Mexico

CANCUN, Mexico — The standing-room-only crowd in the lobby bar at the Fiesta Americana all-inclusive resort were enthralled by the Michael Jackson impersonator dancing on top of the bar after dinner.

The tourists – most of them Americans – danced and shot smartphone videos of the white-gloved performer belting out “Billie Jean’’ and “Thriller'' while they sipped margaritas, martinis, piña coladas and other free drinks.

It was the one-year anniversary of the coronavirus crisis being declared a pandemic. In the U.S., President Joe Biden was delivering his first prime-time address, somberly recounting COVID’s toll but offering hope of a return to some normalcy by July 4th. | Read more

The pandemic ushered in 'a new era of medicine'. These telehealth trends are likely here to stay.

The coronavirus pandemic has changed many aspects of the American health care system, but nothing changed quite as drastically as the rise of telemedicine.

While virtual care existed before COVID-19, the practice boomed after state-mandated, stay-at-home orders and have since remained strong.

Prior to the pandemic, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts received about 200 telehealth claims per day. That number reached up to 40,0000 claims per day from April to May 2020, and the insurer is still receiving about 30,000 claims per day almost a year later, according to spokesperson Amy McHugh.

Athenahealth, a health tech company, released an interactive dashboard that delivered insights on telehealth trends from 18.4 million virtual appointments by 60,000 providers. | Read more

A year after COVID shut schools, students and teachers share what shook them — and what strengthened them

From grade school to graduate school, developing young minds in close physical proximity halted abruptly in mid-March 2020.

What happened next to schools and families was devastating and electrifying, thought-provoking and quieting, unifying and isolating. Homes became entire worlds. Working parents juggled daytime teaching. College students studied from childhood bedrooms. Millions of kindergarteners started school in a format previously unfathomable: on Zoom.

Teachers shifted to nurturing and encouraging through screens — with little training. Many hunted down students in person to ensure they were safe, fed and outfitted with resources to learn.

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented a set of real-world lessons too close and too fresh to be captured by textbooks: How does one manage lives lost? Calculate the damage of lost income? Measure new levels of mental fatigue? We interviewed more than 30 students and educators, of all ages and experience, about how they grew and changed in 2020 — or just made it to the next day.

On the anniversary of this extraordinary year, here’s what they learned. | Read more