What we learned about Cape Coral’s water crisis after a ride alongThe Weather Authority: A wet Saturday evening as storms move through Southwest Florida
CAPE CORAL What we learned about Cape Coral’s water crisis after a ride along On Friday, WINK News got to ride along to see just what people are doing that could be wasting water.
The Weather Authority: A wet Saturday evening as storms move through Southwest Florida A rainy Saturday evening across much of southwest Florida.
FORT MYERS Lee Health Touch-A-Truck event educates families on Trauma Awareness On Saturday morning, sirens were ringing to celebrate Lee Health Trauma Center’s 30 years of service and to provide the public with trauma education and prevention methods.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA (CBS) CDC says bird flu viruses “pose pandemic potential,” cites major knowledge gaps Bird flu continues to appear to pose a “low risk to the general public” for now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. But the agency’s scientists ran into roadblocks investigating a human case of this “pandemic potential” virus this year, they said in a new report.
DOWNTOWN FORT MYERS Bay Street Yard set to open in late May A new place to hang out in Downtown Fort Myers is opening this spring.
Aetna agrees to settle lawsuit over fertility coverage for LGBTQ+ customers Aetna has agreed to settle a lawsuit that accused the health insurer of discriminating against LGBTQ+ customers in need of fertility treatment.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA WINK Neighborhood Watch: Robbery, Pawn Shops, and Child Porn This week’s segment of Wink Neighborhood Watch features an armed robber, fraud at a pawn shop, and possession of child pornography.
Southwest Florida The Weather Authority: Sun, clouds, humidity, rain – it’s all in your weekend forecast Saturday afternoon will be hot and humid, with a mix of sun and clouds.
LEHIGH ACRES Chaotic lake getting fence and security Now, with all the negative attention it has gotten, some think putting up a fence is a great way to keep that bad activity out.
FORT MYERS Students affected by COVID-19 able to graduate for the first time For many young people, COVID stripped away one of their greatest rites of passage: graduation.
Deadly crash on State Road 29 in Hendry County Authorities are at the scene of a deadly crash on State Road 29 in Hendry County on Friday afternoon.
Celebrating Free Comic Book Day in SWFL JP Sports store manager Jonathan Powell said this is a generational event that brings families together to reminisce on comics and other hobby-related knickknacks.
FORT MYERS Group rescues dogs before getting put down in Lee County Our animal shelters are packed with amazing puppies who have the sole desire to be loved.
FORT MYERS FGCU student beats all odds and is able to graduate Nearly four years ago, Marisa Manning had her heart set on going to Florida Gulf Coast University but never thought she’d find her passion for studying parasites.
FORT MYERS Victim in MLK Blvd. shooting identified as social media influencer The victim of the Martin Luther King Boulevard shooting has been identified as a local social media influencer.
CAPE CORAL What we learned about Cape Coral’s water crisis after a ride along On Friday, WINK News got to ride along to see just what people are doing that could be wasting water.
The Weather Authority: A wet Saturday evening as storms move through Southwest Florida A rainy Saturday evening across much of southwest Florida.
FORT MYERS Lee Health Touch-A-Truck event educates families on Trauma Awareness On Saturday morning, sirens were ringing to celebrate Lee Health Trauma Center’s 30 years of service and to provide the public with trauma education and prevention methods.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA (CBS) CDC says bird flu viruses “pose pandemic potential,” cites major knowledge gaps Bird flu continues to appear to pose a “low risk to the general public” for now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. But the agency’s scientists ran into roadblocks investigating a human case of this “pandemic potential” virus this year, they said in a new report.
DOWNTOWN FORT MYERS Bay Street Yard set to open in late May A new place to hang out in Downtown Fort Myers is opening this spring.
Aetna agrees to settle lawsuit over fertility coverage for LGBTQ+ customers Aetna has agreed to settle a lawsuit that accused the health insurer of discriminating against LGBTQ+ customers in need of fertility treatment.
SOUTHWEST FLORIDA WINK Neighborhood Watch: Robbery, Pawn Shops, and Child Porn This week’s segment of Wink Neighborhood Watch features an armed robber, fraud at a pawn shop, and possession of child pornography.
Southwest Florida The Weather Authority: Sun, clouds, humidity, rain – it’s all in your weekend forecast Saturday afternoon will be hot and humid, with a mix of sun and clouds.
LEHIGH ACRES Chaotic lake getting fence and security Now, with all the negative attention it has gotten, some think putting up a fence is a great way to keep that bad activity out.
FORT MYERS Students affected by COVID-19 able to graduate for the first time For many young people, COVID stripped away one of their greatest rites of passage: graduation.
Deadly crash on State Road 29 in Hendry County Authorities are at the scene of a deadly crash on State Road 29 in Hendry County on Friday afternoon.
Celebrating Free Comic Book Day in SWFL JP Sports store manager Jonathan Powell said this is a generational event that brings families together to reminisce on comics and other hobby-related knickknacks.
FORT MYERS Group rescues dogs before getting put down in Lee County Our animal shelters are packed with amazing puppies who have the sole desire to be loved.
FORT MYERS FGCU student beats all odds and is able to graduate Nearly four years ago, Marisa Manning had her heart set on going to Florida Gulf Coast University but never thought she’d find her passion for studying parasites.
FORT MYERS Victim in MLK Blvd. shooting identified as social media influencer The victim of the Martin Luther King Boulevard shooting has been identified as a local social media influencer.
Credit: CBS After a six-week ban on elective procedures, many Florida health-care providers are back in business. But it’s not yet clear whether residents are ready to become health-care consumers, even with additional safety measures put in place as hospitals and other medical centers were allowed to resume providing elective procedures Monday following a halt because of the coronavirus. Doctors and other people in the health-care industry have openly expressed fears that some patients have been forgoing needed medical attention. “There’s been a lot of folks who are putting off going to see their doctor during the ‘Safer at Home’ order and the ban on elective procedures. Some of these patients were patients who really needed to be seen,” Florida Medical Association General Counsel Jeff Scott said, referring to a coronavirus order issued by Gov. Ron DeSantis. “Doctors’ offices have obviously issued some safety precautions to make sure their offices are safe. You’ll see people wearing masks, and you’ll see people coming in for their appointment from their automobile rather than sitting in the waiting room. They will be doing different things. So it’s not going to be 100 percent back to normal, but the care is there. The doctors are available.” Health providers across the state are authorized to provide elective services after DeSantis last week issued an executive order that began the process of reopening businesses that had shut down or scaled back because of the coronavirus pandemic. The executive order was loosely based on recommendations compiled by a DeSantis-created task force and recommendations issued by the Trump administration. “I know this is going to help the health of a lot of people in the state of Florida as well as help hospitals function,” DeSantis said Sunday at a press event at Halifax Health in Daytona Beach. “This will allow kind of the system to start running again like it should, and obviously it will be good for people’s health.” Red Hills Surgical Center in Tallahassee will reopen next Monday and has 25 scheduled surgeries, said David Shapiro, an anesthesiologist and risk manager for the facility. As part of the planning, Shapiro met with top medical staff to discuss new safety procedures because of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus. Chief among the changes is a requirement for all patients to be tested for COVID-19 before surgical procedures, Shapiro said. “That’s going to be our biggest challenge, I think,” Shapiro said of the new policies and procedures that the ambulatory surgical center will follow. “We are doing that to protect not only the patient but all the other patients, surgical, medical staff and employees.” Patients, he said, can be tested for COVID-19 at their referring physicians’ offices or at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, which co-owns the surgical center. Red Hills also is waiting on its own supply of COVID-19 tests and will have capability to test for the virus, Shapiro said. “We are not going to be mandating that they get a test at a certain place, but we are going to require that they do have that test done,” he said, adding that the goal is to administer the tests about two days out from scheduled surgeries. “We want to keep time frames short. They cannot get tested two weeks out,” Shapiro said. Most of the other changes taking place at Red Hills affect the environment. Visitation of patients will be “strictly, strictly,” limited, Shapiro said. Moreover, anxious visitors in waiting rooms will no longer have access to refreshments, magazines or even the television remote control. “It will look a little less friendly, but will really be more safe,” Shapiro said. Shapiro said the surgical center has been closed since DeSantis issued his initial executive order in March. DeSantis said he instituted the ban on elective procedures to conserve necessary personal protective equipment and hospital space as the state prepared for a surge in COVID-19 patients. But despite national models that predicted demand for health care would outpace capacity, that has not occurred to date. The downside is that Florida providers say the ban has wreaked havoc on their financial health. Brandon-based dentist Rudy Liddell did not completely shutter his two office locations, but he pared his hours of operations to about 20 hours a week across a four-day period. Liddell said billing for the dental offices during the six weeks dipped by 70 percent. He has avoided laying off staff because he was able to tap into the payroll-protection program for small businesses that was included in a federal stimulus law. Scott, of the Florida Medical Association, said his physicians’ association conducted a survey of its members that showed 42 percent of the respondents had laid off staff and 55 percent had applied for loans. Four percent of the survey respondents said they permanently or indefinitely have closed their businesses. Safety Net Hospital Alliance of Florida CEO Justin Senior estimated his 14 member hospitals are losing about $175 million in revenue each week, most of which has been attributable to the ban on elective surgical procedures. Unlike guidelines issued by the Trump administration, which initially backed elective surgeries on an outpatient basis only, DeSantis’s order last week also allows hospitals to admit new patients, a move Senior applauded. “I think that is a better approach for Florida,” Senior said, noting that adequate bed capacity for a COVID-19 surge has not been an issue in Florida. “Given the situation in Florida where you had so many vacant beds and so many available ventilators, I think they (hospitals) would have been really distressed if this had dragged on even further.” To offer elective surgeries, hospitals must have enough bed capacity to respond to a potential COVID-19 surge. Additionally, all providers offering elective procedures must maintain an adequate supply of personal protective equipment, commonly referred to as PPE. The supply must be obtained from the private sector and cannot be obtained from the government. The Agency for Health Care Administration told the News Service that it has the capability to monitor bed capacity and that the state Emergency Operations Center can track which providers are getting government-issued PPE. The agency, though, did not directly answer how the state plans to ensure that adequate PPE supplies are maintained. Liddell, who has been a dentist in Brandon for 37 years, said PPE may eventually become an issue for dentists because they are not considered front-line first responders and are not given priority status when ordering the supplies. Scott said the Florida Medical Association would have preferred that the DeSantis order not include the caveat that PPE cannot be obtained from the government. “I think (doctors) would like to see the ability to receive assistance from the state or federal government,” Scott said. “The whole world is competing for PPE, and trying to obtain these supplies is hard.”