COCOA, Fla. — Officials in Brevard County are expanding how they treat the community for COVID-19.
On Friday, COVID-19 vaccination came with a free oil change at a Midas on Cocoa Boulevard in Cocoa.
“We wanted everyone to get vaccinated who wants to be vaccinated,” said Ron Katz with Midas. “We like to make a hub very centrally located. We said come on down. We’ll make it a festival. We’ll have a barbecue.”
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The vaccine event was one of the latest held in partnership with the Florida Department of Health in Brevard County.
“The vaccine is a large part of what we’re trying to do,” said Don Walker with Brevard County. “We’re trying to do that throughout the community, hitting areas we know are underserved, or there are people in those areas where we’ve had low turnout for vaccinations.”
In a weekly update, the department of health’s community health nursing director said the county’s COVID-19 numbers took a slight dip this week.
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Hospitals are seeing some stabilization in new admissions.
However, ICUs are still struggling and staffing is becoming an issue.
The county is also hoping a state-run monoclonal antibody site at Kiwanis Park takes pressure of those hospitals by providing an antibody boost to COVID-19 positive patients, symptomatic patients, and those with a known COVID-19 exposure.
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“We’re doing well over 300 a day,” Walker said. “I think to this point we’ve had over 2,000 people.”
At the same time, the county is looking for a way to boost testing.
Starting next week, the Florida Department of Health in Brevard is partnering with Nomi Health to offer COVID-19 testing in Viera by appointment Monday through Friday.
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