Good after Flagler County. This is Sheriff Rick Staly and thank you for joining us for a COVID-19 update for Thursday, May 21st.
As of this morning, Flagler County has had 169 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 21 total hospitalizations and 4 deaths. Flagler County has tested over 3,200 people with about 5% testing positive.
Testing at the Palm Coast campus of Daytona State College is currently closed through May 25th for the Memorial Day weekend. Testing will resume on Tuesday, May 26th. Call the Flagler County COVID-19 hotline at 386-313-4200 to see if you qualify and schedule an appointment.
You can also make an appointment for COVID-19 testing with your primary healthcare provider, the Florida Department of Health in Bunnell, or an Urgent Care Center. Please call to make an appointment first as they do not take walk-ins for COVID-19 testing.
OneBlood is now including COVID-19 antibody testing for every person who donates blood. Test results will be returned within 48 hours. Find out more information or locate a Big Red Bus near you by visiting: oneblood.org
The cities of Flagler Beach and Palm Coast have canceled(sic) their July 3rd and 4th events for this year. Keep in mind the beaches will still be open. Also, remember the Sheriff’s Office does not make these decisions.
Flagler County has submitted a safety plan for re-opening vacation rentals to the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation. Keep in mind the original order by the Governor only required vacation rentals to not accept NEW reservations. This did cause confusion to our residents who still saw people occupying vacation rentals. Flagler County is still waiting for the state’s approval on their vacation rental safety plan.
This weekend is Memorial Day weekend and while this year feels and is different than other years, we know that this marks the unofficial start to summer. We will have increased patrols this weekend focusing on seatbelt, speed, and aggressive driving enforcement along with countywide impaired driving and boating enforcement. If you plan to drink, plan to have a sober driver or captain. You don’t want to spend the long weekend in the Green Roof Inn.
As a reminder, the CDC still recommends wearing a cloth face-covering out in public and continue to practice social distancing. People in high-risk categories by age or underlying medical conditions are encouraged to stay home as much as possible and take all measures to limit exposure to this virus.
On this Memorial Day weekend let’s always remember and keep our fallen military heroes and their families in your thoughts and prayers.
Follow us to stay up to date on our social media platforms or at flaglersheriff.com/coronavirus. You can also download the Flagler County Sheriff’s app in the App Store or Google Play to stay up to date.
See more with the official video released on the Flagler County Sheriff’s Facebook Page:
