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Long lines of cars in Collier County on Monday showed just how great the demand is for the COVID-19 vaccine.

People began lining up at 6 a.m. to get a shot, which the county began administering last week for those 65 and older, as well as frontline health care workers – but only if they had an appointment.

Among those getting their dose at the drive-thru vaccine clinic on Monday were Kenneth and Jackie Murray. It was a boring year for the couple.

“I’ve seen every Netflix movie on the planet,” Kenneth said with a laugh.

But they consider themselves fortunate.

“I have to say I’m one of the lucky ones; I’ve never had the disease,” Kenneth said.

And also because the Murrays were among the first seniors to get vaccinated for COVID-19 in Collier County.

“I feel terrific. Really happy to have gotten to this point, it’s a very exciting thing for us,” Jackie said.

They and 499 others got a dose of the Moderna vaccine at South Collier Regional Park on Monday.

“It was just great. The people are great and I think whoever administered this process did a great job,” Kenneth said.

LINK: Collier County’s COVID-19 vaccine waitlist

Thousands of others wait, some hoping to snag a spot on the county’s waitlist, which reserves your spot for only one date and time, depending on what you sign up for. You’ll receive an email if that spot opens.

Kristine Hollingsworth, spokesperson for the FDOH-Collier, said you have to move fast if a spot opens up.

“Once you receive that email, you have 12 hours to secure your appointment. Otherwise, it defaults to the next person.”

The county expects to get more vaccines soon, and appointments will reopen once that happens.

“Unfortunately we do not have that timeline at this point in time,” Hollingsworth said.

Until more are vaccinated, “I think we’ll still be cautious. We know we still need to wear a mask and protect ourselves and others,” Kenneth said.

FDOH-Collier said those who get that first dose can get their second 28 days later. They’ll email you 21 days after your first dose, asking you to make an appointment for the second.

To get on Collier County’s waitlist, go to this link, click the date you want to join the waitlist for, click “Register” and then click “Join Waitlist” at the bottom.

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People are rushing to own a piece of Southwest Florida sports history. The Charlotte Stone Crabs are selling items from Charlotte Sports Park after the team lost its affiliation with the Tampa Bay Rays.

Many can not believe the Stone Crabs won’t be playing after a decade. They’re packing it up and moving out of Charlotte County. So, people are trying to stack up on memorabilia.

The memories themselves, however, are priceless.

Michael Capner of Port Charlotte says he was surprised to see some of the items. “I didn’t even know this even existed until we came through here,” said Capner.

But he managed to find a picture that’s certainly worth more than 1,000 words. “I was like ‘oh man! I need to have that,'” Capner said.

A decade full of memories for Capner who was a longtime bartender at Charlotte Sports Park. “You can see there’s a big shadow in there. That’s me. You can only see the back of my head but I am kind of excited to have this,” he said.

The Tampa Bay Rays ended its affiliation with the Stone Crabs in December. Now the Minor League team is selling everything.

Tom and Judi Essenburg are from Michigan. “He got a new Stone Crabs hat. Because the Stone Crabs will be no more, and we want mementos,” Judi said.

There are collectibles too. “I got five packs of baseball cards,” said Tom.

Dave Cabott bought a cart he used while working as the stadium’s beer vendor. “When I saw it was still for sale, I thought I am going to have to take it,” said Cabott.

They are getting to take home a piece of history. “They were part of the community and the community was part of them,” said Capner.

All to say farewell to a sports staple in Charlotte County.

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Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office is looking for three people connected to the battery of a security guard over 65 years old at Port Charlotte Town Center Mall Monday.

According to the CCSO Facebook post, an unknown female beat up a security guard at the Dillard’s department store at the mall.

Investigators say she was with two males, who all got away from the scene in a black Chevrolet Malibu that had an out-of-state license tag with red, white and blue graphics. The possible tag is JR7662.

Anyone with information can contact the sheriff’s office non-emergency number at 941-639-0013, send a message through Facebook or send an anonymous tip via the CCSO mobile app.

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Our crew saw dead fish washed up on shore about every 10 feet along a popular Southwest Florida beach to begin the week. The sight and smell left many beachgoers disgusted.

What is likely the presence of red tide was noticeable on Fort Myers Beach Monday.

The latest red tide map showed medium concentrations near Fort Myers Beach, with higher levels remaining south near Collier County.

This latest red tide map, Monday, Jan. 4, 2021, shows concentrations of red tide along the Southwest Florida coast. Credit: WINK News.

We were at Bowditch Point Park on Fort Myers Beach, where we asked beachgoers if it was worth the drive to enjoy the water and the sand.

“I’ll still take a little red tide over the snow any day,” said Mike Ryan, who was visiting the region from Ohio.

While he said he had seen a couple dead fish during his visit, it was at a height for him will at Bowditch Point Monday.

“I saw a couple dead fish on the other side of the beach a few days ago. I took a pretty long walk and only saw a couple,” Ryan said. “Today, it looks a lot worse. Like, there’s dead fish all over the place right here.”

Dead fish could be seen on the sand and floating in the water.

“It hasn’t been too detrimental to day-to-day activities, but it is a little, with the COVID stuff going on,” Ryan said. “It’s kind of scary to hear people coughing all the time too.”

But it was a different story for Brenda and Rick Schmidt over at Lynn Hall Park.

“Today it seems just fine,” Rick said. “We haven’t seen any dead fish. Everything seems really clean so far today.”

That was a change from a couple days ago.

“We were walking, and my husband was noticing, ‘Gosh, you’re coughing a lot,’ you know?” Brenda said. “And we did notice a couple dead fish down a little bit south here, but you know so far, we haven’t noticed too much this morning.”

The number of fish that wash up can change day-to-day based on the winds. The Florida Department of Health recommends not to swim around dead fish, and keep pets away from dead marine life.

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Lee County opened up its reservation system for the COVID-19 vaccine on Monday, and frustration doesn’t even begin to describe how so many people feel after they had trouble connecting.

Reservations were booked within minutes after the noon opening, with 5,000 shots available for an eligible population of 200,000 people who are at least 65.

The good news is that Lee County says more vaccines are on the way, possibly as soon as this week.

But Monday afternoon, once the reservation system opened up, the phones and inboxes at WINK News began to blow up.

MORE: COVID-19 vaccine schedules and information for SWFL

All of the messages were the same: People couldn’t get through to make an appointment. Some called the phone number dozens of times and got nothing but a busy signal. Others said they got hung up on.

You can watch a replay of the county’s press conference below or by clicking here.

Mary Ann Conlin was one of the thousands of anxious callers who picked up the phone Monday at noon on the dot to make an appointment. “As soon as it said 12, I started dialing.”

She heard a voice on the other end telling her she’d won a prize. “Then they said you’ve won a prize, press one again. And I thought, press one for what? I thought I must’ve got the wrong number.”

Conlin said she kept trying. Twenty calls later, “I get answered again. They ask me if I’m going to speak English, I press one and they say you’ve won a Walmart gift card.”

And again. “He said well, I need your name and address, and I said is this the reservation line? And he hung up on me.”

She called again, and again, and again.

“Thirty-five times … 35 to 40 on two phones … close to 100. I’m losing my voice.”

Like all of you who tried, but few got anywhere. The county announced shortly after 12:30 that all the appointments had been booked.

“What I’m really mad about is somebody is messing around with the health of seniors in my county. That’s what bothers me the most,” Conlin said.

The county said Monday afternoon that “initial analytics show that within the first 30 minutes of the phone line going live, there was an average of 50,000 calls per minute, with a peak call volume of 84,000 calls per minute.”

Those who managed to get through and were on hold or were told they’d receive a call back are still being processed for appointments, the county said.

When additional vaccine doses become available, the county will reopen its reservation call line.

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As of 2:30 p.m. Monday, there have been 1,376,692 positive cases of the coronavirus recorded in the state. The case count includes 1,352,222 Florida residents and 24,470 non-Florida residents. There are 22,090 Florida resident deaths reported, 325 non-resident deaths, and 63,505 hospitalizations at some point during illness, according to the Florida Department of Health.

*Numbers are released by the DOH every afternoon.

STATEWIDE NUMBERS

Total number of recorded cases: 1,376,692 (up from 1,365,436)
Florida resident deaths: 22,090 (up from 21,987)
Non-resident deaths: 325 (up from 323)
Total deaths in state (Fla./non-Fla. residents combined): 22,415 (up from 22,310)

  • 11,256 total new cases reported Monday
  • 103 new resident deaths reported Monday
  • 2 new non-resident deaths reported Monday
  • Percent positive for new cases in Fla. residents: 12.52%
    • This percent is the number of people who test PCR- or antigen-positive for the first time divided by all the people tested that day, excluding people who have previously tested positive. 

SOUTHWEST FLORIDA NUMBERS

Total recorded cases in SWFL: 80,541 (up from 79,832)
Deaths: 1,380 (up from 1,370)

  • 709 total new cases reported Monday
  • 10 new deaths reported Monday

Lee County: ​42,368 cases (up from 41,916) – 680 deaths (5 new)
Collier County: 23,197 (up from 23,070) – 341 deaths (2 new)
Charlotte County: 7,807 (up from 7,727) – 241 deaths (3 new)
DeSoto County: 2,949 (up from 2,946) – 58 deaths
Glades County: 786 (up from 781) – 11 deaths
Hendry County: 3,434 (up from 3,392) – 49 deaths

Click HERE* for a case-by-case breakdown – updated daily.

*If not linked, the final report has not yet been made available.

TESTING DATA

Effective Oct. 27, the Florida Department of Health ceased releasing data showing overall testing numbers. Their statement: “The Florida Department of Health is making adjustments to the COVID-19 dashboard and daily report to provide clear, accurate information for Florida families. Moving forward, the daily report will focus on the number of tests reported to the state by day and the corresponding positivity rate by day. The previously reported cumulative number did not reflect the current status of the pandemic in Florida. This change is in line with the CDC recommendation that calculation of percent positivity [is] applied consistently and with clear communication, will allow public health officials to follow magnitude and trends effectively, and the trends will be useful for local public health decision making.”

RESOURCES

VACCINE IN SWFL: COVID-19 vaccine schedules and information for SWFL

VACCINE IN FLORIDA: State of Florida’s COVID-19 vaccine reports

NOW HIRING: SWFL companies adding jobs

FOOD PANTRIES: Harry Chapin mobile food pantry schedule, week of Jan. 4

REPORT COVID-19 DIAGNOSIS/TEST: International self-reporting system

IF YOU FEEL SICK:

The Florida Department of Health has a 24-hour COVID-19 Call Center at 1-866-779-6121. Questions may also be emailed to covid-19@flhealth.gov. Email responses will be sent during call center hours.

LINK: Florida Department of Health COVID-19 updates

*The map is best viewed on a desktop computer. If you don’t see the map above tap HERE for a fullscreen version.

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Slack, the online messaging platform which services over 10 million people, experienced an outage Monday as workers returned to the platform after the holidays. The company said “all hands” were on deck to investigate the issue.

“Customers may experience issues connecting to Slack to loading channels at this time. Our team is on the case and we will keep you posted. Apologies for any disruption,” the company said in a statement.

Users began reported issues with Slack around 10 a.m. ET, according to Downdetector.com. The company posted its first message addressing the incident at 10:14 a.m.

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The NCAA is giving Indiana an exclusive ticket to showcase March Madness and the basketball-crazed state can’t wait to take center stage this spring.

The NCAA announced Monday that its showcase event – the Division I men’s basketball tournament, all 67 games of it – will be played entirely in or near Indianapolis. The hope is to limit the possibility that the coronavirus pandemic cancels the wildly popular and lucrative tournament for a second consecutive season.

“There are a number of world-class facilities in a close location and that was critical because you have to run a large number of games simultaneously that you can manage and control,” NCAA President Mark Emmert said. “There were a number of cities that were very interested in hosting this event, but the immediate opportunity to do this in Indianapolis was pretty self-evident for several reasons. For one, we were already going to be there.”

Indy was already scheduled to host the Final Four and it didn’t take long for the city to emerge as the favorite.

The original plan was for the 67 games to be played at 13 sites across the country, starting with the First Four in Dayton, Ohio. Regional sites were set for Minneapolis, Denver, New York City and Memphis.

Instead, the buzzer beaters and jaw-dropping performances will all take place in a state known perhaps more than any other for its love of basketball.

“I really don’t care if they play the tournament on Saturn or in Indianapolis,” Louisville coach Chris Mack said. “Hopefully, we’re a part of it and we do our part to get there. And wherever they put it, they put it.”

Logistically, Indy made sense, too.

Dozens of restaurants of hotels are within walking distance of Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts, and Bankers Life Fieldhouse, home of the NBA’s Indiana Pacers and WNBA’s Indiana Fever. Many of those businesses and venues are connected by skywalks that allow players, coaches or fans to stay indoors.

Hinkle Fieldhouse, the historic home of the Butler Bulldogs, and the Indiana Farmers Coliseum, where the IUPUI Jaguars play, are just short drives from the downtown area. Mackey Arena at Purdue and Assembly Hall at Indiana also are about an hour’s drive from downtown.

All of those venues are slated to host games.

Playing in a state where the sport is revered and basketball stars are considered royalty doesn’t hurt, either. Oscar Robertson, Larry Bird, Rick Mount, Damon Bailey and the late John Wooden were all-stars here at one level or another. Bob Knight, Gene Keady and the late Tony Hinkle, originator of the orange basketball, all coached in the state, which for decades had a single-class state tournament won famously in 1954 by Milan High, the inspiration for Hollywood’s “Hoosiers.”

So perhaps bringing March Madness back home to Indiana, home of the NCAA’s headquarters, was the natural choice.

“Last year, we had to rip March Madness away from all the teams and all the fans at the very last minute,” Emmert said. “We know it was the right thing to do, but it was a painful thing to do. So we want to deliver this year on the promise of March Madness. They deserve it.”

Some things aren’t expected to change.

Selection Sunday is still set for March 14, the tourney field is expected to remain at 68 and the Final Four games are still scheduled for April 3 with the title game two days later. CBS Sports and Turner Sports will continue to televise and stream the games.

But this tourney will have dramatically a different atmosphere.

Two courts will be constructed inside cavernous Lucas Oil Stadium, though only one game will be played at a time because of potential distractions from whistles and horns going off. NCAA vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt said fewer games may be played each day because of longer breaks needed to properly clean the facilities. Preliminary round dates have not yet been set.

“If we’re going to be able to do it, it’s got to be done safely,” Creighton coach Greg McDermott said. “The more you can limit travel the better. To do it in the middle of the country makes it easier for everybody. … You want to be there, you want to be part of it. It’s going to be an historic event.”

Fewer fans are expected, too.

NCAA officials said a limited number of family members of players and coaches can attend games, but they will consult local and state public health officials to determine final attendance.

COVID-19 testing will be conducted before each game and each team will be assigned its own floor and its own meeting spaces inside its hotel.

“We’ve very intentionally talked about this being a controlled environment,” Gavitt said. “The NBA and WNBA had much more of a bubble. We’re not going to be able to create that specifically but we will come incredibly close to that.”

Gavitt cautioned that holding the tournament will present many challenges. Scores of college basketball games have been canceled or postponed this season because of COVID-19 issues, with games called off on a near-daily basis.

Emmert said an announcement about the Division I women’s tournament is expected soon. San Antonio, which was scheduled to host this year’s women’s Final Four, is believed to be the front-runner for a potentially similar tourney.

Evansville, an southern Indiana city just across the Ohio River from Kentucky, will host the Division II championship, while Fort Wayne, in northeastern Indiana, will host the Division III championship.

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Gov. Ron DeSantis held a second press conference Monday to update the state’s response to the coronavirus and the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, which has been slower than expected. So far, only a few thousand people have received the vaccine in a state of 23 million people.

The second one took place at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

You can watch a replay of the second one below or by clicking here.

The governor also held a press conference Monday morning in Seminole County.

Speaking from Orlando Health South Seminole Hospital in Longwood, he started the press conference by saying Orlando Health would begin vaccinations there at seven sites this week.

In his news conferences, DeSantis said he would be bringing in more people to help with vaccine distribution. Hopefully, that will mean the vaccines will get to more people.

He wants every hospital to submit plans on how to vaccinate its community. “Hospitals that don’t do a good job of getting it out will have their vax given to another hospital,” DeSantis said.

Cheryl Ferrara is still waiting for her first COVID-19 vaccine. “I was hoping that after a few days, it might not be quite as crazy.”

Harry Scott from Collier County says he got up at 4 a.m. and waited in a very long line to get his vaccine. “Everybody out there wants it; the sooner, the better.”

DeSantis also wants to study and find out if it’s possible to convert testing sites like CenturyLink into vaccination sites.

“They certainly have to have a facility. The facility has to be equipped to handle the volumes of people,” Scott said.

Angela Smith works with DOH-Lee County. “At this time we haven’t received any information that CenturyLink would be repurposed for vaccinations.”

Florida is also working on getting 1,000 more nurses to help administer the shots, and the governor wants to work with churches in underserved communities so that no one is left behind.

Ferrara says more help is still needed as she’s still hasn’t received her first shot. “Anything to move this forward. I know that everybody has been working really hard. It’s been so stressful for those of us who have been waiting.”

Lee Health says it’s a work in progress where the state is concerned. As for converting CenturyLink, the site manager is still waiting for direction from the state. But, he’s ready when the time comes.

You can watch a replay of the Orlando Health press conference below or by clicking here.

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Your holiday décor is gone, and now there are simple ways to make your home feel fresh for a new year. Dwayne Bergmann lets you into his studio to show you exactly how.

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