SARASOTA COUNTY – Positive cases of COVID-19 are on the rise.
930 new COVID-19 cases have been reported in Sarasota County in the past week, triple the number from the previous week.
“The main message for people is that it is highly contagious so using those protection measures that we have available to keep each other and others safe is really important right now, masking if you’re in an area where social distancing is not possible, making sure that you’re staying at home if you are sick, opting out of that new year’s eve party if you have the sniffles or a cold, because you could get the entire party sick,” said Sarasota County Department of Health PIO, Steve Huard.
If you test positive, CDC guidelines state you should STILL quarantine for ten days
“As long as you are symptom free, without the need of medication to keep your fever down or anything like that you are welcome to go back to normal activity, however, if you are still experiencing symptoms of any nature, and you have to have medicine to manage those or not then you again need to stay quarantined a little bit longer,” said Huard.
Huard says the new variant, may project different symptoms
“I’m hearing that the symptoms that were not seeing is loss of smell and loss of taste, and those symptoms seemed to be more aligned with the common cold, and again that’s why we really stress that to folks, especially right now during the holidays, whether you’ve got the common cold or possibly COVID, you want to take protective measures for yourself for yourself, your family, or your friends,” said Huard.
Sarasota continues to encourage unvaccinated members of the community to get vaccinated now, and others to get their boosters
“Again it’s a really good opportunity to remind the public, we have multiple layers of protection out there for people against COVID, we just need to make sure that were utilizing those modalities to protect ourselves,” said Huard.
DOH – Sarasota operates no-appointment necessary, walk-in COVID 19 vaccination clinics offering all authorized doses of Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
COVID 19 Vaccination Clinic hours of operation:
DOH Sarasota (Downtown)
2200 Ringling Blvd, Sarasota 34237
CLOSED Dec. 30 & 31
All Doses of Vaccine
Monday, Wednesday, Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Tuesday and Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
DOH Sarasota (North Port)
6950 Outreach Way, North Port 34287
CLOSED Dec. 30 & 31
All Doses of Vaccine
Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
DOH Sarasota recommends that individuals contact their medical provider, local retail pharmacies or visit vaccines.gov for vaccine availability near them.
