Obituaries - Lester Baird Jr., Joyce Price, Terri Williams, Anita Clark

Lester Bernard Baird, Jr., joined this world on April 3, 1968 and he left this world far too young at age 51 on March 10, 2020 to be with Jesus. 

He is survived by his father, Lester Bernard Baird, Sr and two younger brothers, Brian and Patrick. His mother, Diane Harness Baird preceded him in death when he was 19 in 1987. He is also survived by his step mother Sylvia. 

He had many aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. Les was very well liked. He was a good Christian Man. 

For more than 20 years he was employed by the Palm Beach County School Board, eighteen of which as a school bus driver. One year he was named bus driver of the year. He enjoyed the kids a whole lot. He suffered a serious car accident in 2011 and was disabled as a result. 

Celebration of Lester's life will be held at 1 p.m. Friday, March 20, 2020 at Akin-Davis Funeral Home, 560 East Hickpochee Avenue, LaBelle, Florida 33935, where Pastor Mike Olive will officiate. 

Visitation will be from 6-8 pm on Thursday evening from 6-8 p.m. 

Burial will take place in Fort Denaud Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, the family has suggested donations be given to Common Ground Church to the Oak Trees for Lester fund, 1201 Sound Federal Highway, Lake Worth, Florida 33460. Arrangements by Akin-Davis Funeral Home - LaBelle.


Joyce Virginia Strickland Price, age 82, of Clewiston, passed away March 14, 2020 in Clewiston Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. She was born Sep. 8, 1937 in Cotton Plant, FL, to the late Asa and the late Leone (Williams) Strickland. 

She married Sherill Max Price; he preceded her in death in 2003. 

Joyce was a Christian woman who loved sharing her faith and love with anyone she would meet. She will be missed dearly by her entire family and friends. 

Survivors include two sons; J.W. Drake of Moore Haven and Sherrill Max Price Jr., and one daughter: Karen Pelham both of Clewiston, ten grandchildren and thirteen great grandchildren; one brother; Kenny Strickland of Douglas, Georgia and three sisters; Norine Gilstrap of Inverness, Josephine Cannon of Pensacola and Arena Thompson of Inverness. 

She was preceded in death by her son; Henry Drake. 

Celebration of Joyce's life will be held at 11 am on Wednesday, March 18, 2020 at New Harvest Church in Clewiston where Pastor Chuck Pelham will officiate. Visitation will be one hour before the service also at the church. 

Burial will be next to her husband in Ridgelawn Cemetery. Arrangements by Akin-Davis Funeral Home - Clewiston.

Terri Lee Jett Williams, age 65, of Harrod, passed away March 11, 2020 in LaBelle. Arrangements by Akin-Davis Funeral Home - LaBelle.

Anita Clark Ott passed away peacefully on March 6, 2020 at age 97. She was born on May 11, 1922 and grew up in Savannah, GA. 

She married George Ott, the love of her life, who preceded her. They retired to Clearwater, FL, and spent many happy years together. 

She is survived by a large family who love her and will be missed by all those who knew her. 

Graveside service will be held 10:00 a.m., Friday, March 27, 2020 at Bonaventure Cemetery, Savannah, GA. Arrangements by Akin-Davis Funeral Home - LaBelle.

Florida National Guard Readies - Federal Assistance Requested

TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Division of Emergency Management announced that at the Governor’s direction, FDEM Director Jared Moskowitz is ordering additional supplies and personal protective equipment in an effort to mitigate and contain the spread of COVID-19 in the state.

After conducting a thorough assessment of needs, Director Moskowitz has requested the following supplies through Direct Federal Assistance:

5 mobile intensive care units
5,000 ventilators
5,000 hospital beds
50,000 two oz. bottles of hand sanitizer
250,000 coveralls
500,000 gloves
500,000 gowns
500,000 collection kits
100,000 16 oz. bottles of hand sanitizers
150,000 Personal Protective Equipment kits, including coveralls, gowns, and goggles
2 million N95 face masks

Supplies are being delivered on a rolling basis, and inventory is being distributed throughout the state 24 hours a day.

Three field hospitals are being deployed:

One field hospital is currently staged in Orlando and can be deployed to other areas in the state as needed.
One field hospital is on its way to Broward County and will be set up there.
One field hospital is on its way to Ocala and will be staged there and deployed to other areas as needed.

Director Moskowitz is also working with the federal government to determine if there is capacity to add US Navy Mercy-Class ships at Florida ports. Mobile COVID-19 testing is also being implemented, and the National Guard is deployed in Broward County and on standby to assist throughout the state as necessary.

How Taiwan Escaped Coronavirus - Can We Do It Here?

What Works To Slow The Spread Of Coronavirus

Taiwan, China has managed the COVID-19 crisis with an expertise that has prevented large scale infections in the country of 23 million, despite the country's location 85 miles from mainland China. 

As of today March 20, 2020 there are only 100 confirmed cases in Taiwan, or one person in 230,000 and only 1 death with 22 recovered as of today. By comparison the Netherlands (one of only a dozen or so countries with adequate testing), with a population of 17,200,000 has 1,710 cases or 1 per 10,000 persons with 43 deaths and only 2 recovered.

(Among the countries with presumed adequate early testing and universal healthcare to varying degrees is China, Iran, South Korea, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and Denmark. Universal testing allows health authorities to better pinpoint where the hot spots are to allow better plans for mitigation.)

The following has been taken from a paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association March 3, 2020.

"The country has 23 million citizens of which 850 000 reside in and 404 000 work in China. In 2019, 2.71 million visitors from the mainland traveled to Taiwan.

"Taiwan leveraged its national health insurance database and integrated it with its immigration and customs database to begin the creation of big data for analytics; it generated real-time alerts during a clinical visit based on travel history and clinical symptoms to aid case identification. It also used new technology, including QR code scanning and online reporting of travel history and health symptoms to classify travelers’ infectious risks based on flight origin and travel history in the past 14 days.

"On January 20, the Taiwan CDC announced that the government had under its control a stockpile of 44 million surgical masks, 1.9 million N95 masks, and 1100 negative-pressure isolation rooms.

"Taiwan citizens’ household registration system and the foreigners’ entry card allowed the government to track individuals at high risk because of recent travel history in affected areas.

"A mobile health declaration pass was then sent via SMS to phones using a local telecom operator, which allowed for faster immigration clearance for those with minimal risk. This system was created within a 72-hour period. On February 18, the government announced that all hospitals, clinics, and pharmacies in Taiwan would have access to patients’ travel histories."

From Big Data Analytics, New Technology, and Proactive Testing by
C. Jason Wang, MD, PhD1,2; Chun Y. Ng, MBA, MPH2; Robert H. Brook, MD, ScD3,4
Article Information

Published online March 3, 2020. Journal of the American Medical Association JAMA
Full Article:https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2762689

United Way COVID-19 Resource Helpline

WHAT: United Way of Lee, Hendry, Glades and Okeechobee under the direction of Lee County Emergency Management has activated a 2-1-1 Helpline to provide factual and current local resource information related to the COVID-19 virus.

HOW: Dial 2-1-1 or 239-433-3900

WHY: United Way of Lee County has trained and equipped staff and volunteers with cancellations, closings, and daily status for schools, government offices, day cares/camps and events. The 2-1-1 Helpline has information on food distribution, safety precautions, social distancing and self-isolation. Lee County Emergency Management has vetted the information, and resources will be continually updated. The United Way is coordinating with our network of Human Service Partner Agencies to monitor available services.

Additional: UnitedWayLee.org

Two Months Free Internet Service Available

LABELLE, FL. -- Comcast is offering two months free internet service to certain households and if qualified, $9.99 per month after that period.

To help manage the COVID-19 emergency, Comcast is taking steps to help connect low-income families to the Internet at home. New "Internet Essentials" customers will receive two free months of Internet service, which is available to all qualified low-income households for $9.95/month plus tax. Apply by April 30, 2020.

Additionally, for all new and existing Internet Essentials customers, the speed of the program's Internet service has increased to 25 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps upstream. That increase will go into effect automatically for no additional fee and it will become the new base speed for the program going forward. "During this extraordinary time, it is vital that as many Americans as possible stay connected to the internet – for education, work, and personal health reasons,” said Dave Watson, Comcast Cable Chief Executive Officer.

-Qualifications include if you are eligible for public assistance programs such as the National School Lunch Program, Housing Assistance, Medicaid, SNAP, SSI and others.

-You do not have outstanding debt to Comcast that is less than a year old. Families with outstanding debt more than one year old may still be eligible.

-You live in an area where Comcast Internet service is available but have not subscribed to it within the last 90 days.

See https://www.internetessentials.com/covid19