Local News 9-2-21

One Highlands County Labor Day Weekend even has bit the dust, courtesy of Covid concerns. The Friends of The Hammock yesterday announced that the group’s planned “Summer Splash” event for the weekend has been cancelled due to the uptick in Covid cases in the County.

Next time you see the power company whacking some branches out of yours or a neighbor’s tree, the reason is to avoid what County fire crews found yesterday morning off Winter Green Street in Lake Placid. A heavily wooded lot was set ablaze because one of the pine trees had made contact with a power line running along the border and set the place on fire. Even with all the rain we’ve had, it doesn’t take long in this heat for stuff to dry out again – yesterday’s brush fire was put out without damage to any homes or buildings.

The County Health Department wants you to know that they’ve got all three of the current Covid vaccines in stock – Pfizer, Moderna and the single-dose Johnson and Johnson varieties … and they’re still free. Drug stores and doctors’ offices also have ‘em, or you can make an appointment for your choice of the three at the Health Department – call 382-7260. The County’s up to 59% of all persons over 12 having gotten the shots now, but there were still 1,153 cases of the bug last week, up from 730 the week before. And local hospitals report just about 90% of the cases requiring hospitalization locally are unvaccinated individuals.

Speaking of our local hospitals, they’ve both clamped down on visitors as the case count rises – Highlands Regional Medical Center announced this week that no visitors will be allowed in the hospital except for pediatric emergency room patients. Up the road, Advent Health is also trimming visitors back with limits on daily visitors. They suggest checking the hospital web page for up-to-date policies.