COVID Testing Continues For Children And Adults In Hendry-Glades Counties

MOORE HAVEN, FL. -- Testing for COVID continues in Hendry and Glades county this month with open testing for children and adults and tests by appointment. Today, testing is free in Moore Haven  for children and adults from 2 until 6.

Open Testing – No Appointments Needed

Testing Adults & Children over 5 yrs with Parent Consent

The Florida Department of Health in Glades County will offer free COVID-19 Testing on Friday, September 4th from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the Glades County Health Department.

No appointment is needed!

Testing will be provided to adults and children 5 yrs and older.

Parents must sign a consent form for children to be tested.

Location: Glades County Health Department
1021 Healthpark Drive, Moore Haven, FL 34471

Friday, September 4th -- 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

William Rives Burial With Military Honors in Clewiston September 3

William R Rives, Jr, age 73, of Lake Harbor, passed away August 31, 2020 in West Palm Beach. He was born Sep. 16, 1946 in Belle Glade, FL, to the late William R and the late Leona (McTaggart) Rives, Sr. 

He was married to Sharon A. Heldt Rives for 54 years before she passed away on July 9, 2020. 

He proudly served his country in the United States Army during the Vietnam War. He was a mechanic supervisor for many years. 

He along with his wife, Sharon made Lake Harbor Community Methodist Church their home church. 

He leaves behind his loving son; William R. "Billy" Rives, III and his wife Tracy of Haslet, Texas, four grandchildren, several nieces, nephews, and other extended family members and church friends. 

William was preceded in death by his brothers and sisters; Buck Rives, James Rives, Jean Perryman and Kay Phillips. 

Celebration of William's life will be held at 4:00 p.m. Thursday, September 3, 2020 in Ridgelawn Cemetery in Clewiston where military honors will be conducted by the United States Army. 

Visitation will be from 1:00-3:00 p.m. Thursday afternoon at Lake Harbor Community Methodist Church. Due to the COVID guidelines, the visitation is limited to 10 people in the church at one time. 

Arrangements by Akin-Davis Funeral Home - Clewiston.

Florida Transportation Department Warns Political Signs Prohibited On Highways

FORT MYERS, FL. – As election season gears up across Southwest Florida, the Florida Department of Transportation is reminding all citizens that state law prohibits political signs on state right of way.

In Section 479.11(8), Florida Statutes provide that no signs shall be erected, used, operated, or maintained on the right of way of any highway on the State Highway System.

The roadway right of way includes the roadway surface, concrete or grassy median, intersections, entrance and exit ramps, and a strip of land, usually bordering either side of the road, which is reserved for shoulders, drainage ditches, sidewalks, traffic signs/signals, fencing, electrical traffic signal control boxes, utility lines and future road expansion.

Improperly located signs on state right of way poses a traffic safety hazard that can distract motorists or block their view, endanger the safety of individuals who are erecting signs along busy highways and present obstacles to crews who maintain roadways.

County laws also prohibit such signs on roads and also prohibited on private land unless the property owner has given permission to place signs.

For more information, visit the Florida Department of Transportation website at http://www.fdot.gov/rightofway/.

Governor Ron DeSantis Fires Quest Diagnostics For Failure To Report COVID Tests Timely

Today, at the direction of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, the Florida Department of Health and the Florida Division of Emergency Management will be severing all ties with Quest Diagnostics after Quest’s alleged failure to follow Florida law and report all COVID-19 results in a timely manner.

"Quest’s failure to report nearly 75,000 results dating back to April means most of the data in today’s upload – while it will have historical significance – will have little impact on the status of the pandemic today," said a press release from the Department of Health.

Today, the Florida Department of Health reported at 11 a.m., there are 7,569 new positive COVID-19 cases, out of those, 3,870 were results older two weeks, some dating back to April, per a delay in reporting from Quest Diagnostic Labs, said the DOH.

Quest Diagnostics is a large, nationwide lab that provides testing at private sites, as well as performing limited testing through the state. Based in New Jersey, the company has 47,000 employees. with it's stock trading on the New York Stock Exchange, and trading down 2% this morning.

Upon announcing this action, Governor DeSantis said, “The law requires all COVID-19 results to be reported to DOH in a timely manner. To drop this much unusable and stale data is irresponsible. I believe that Quest has abdicated their ability to perform a testing function in Florida that the people can be confident in. As such I am directing all executive agencies to sever their COVID-19 testing relationships with Quest effective immediately.”

Quest states that "We have reported results of approximately 13.2 million COVID-19 molecular diagnostic tests to patients and providers in the United States. We enter the third consecutive week of reporting an average turnaround time for these tests of 2 days across all populations and 1-2 days for our priority population, which includes hospitalized patients, individuals in long-term care (such as nursing homes), and pre-surgical patients.

"We now have capacity to provide 200,000 COVID-19 molecular diagnostic tests a day. Our increased capacity strengthens our ability to service potential surges in demand heading into the Fall flu season." 

Officials for the state have not indicated a breakout of the test dates or how they will get tests results from other companies, but Monday night, August 31, the Governor’s office was informed that nearly 75,000 tests from Quest, dating as far back as April, were to be entered into the DOH COVID-19 monitoring system. 

The Governor has been attempting to manipulate testing reporting results for several months, critics say, in order to make the results show positive COVID percentages as low as possible, mostly by including multiple test results from any individual being tested more than once, instead of reporting positive results from only each individual. Reporting results from multiple testing of the same individuals makes the results appear lower than they actually are. Actual positivity results are reportedly about twice as high as the state is reporting.

Lake Okeechobee Area Obituaries - Juan Erebia, Justin Savacool, Thomas Olson

Juan Luis Erebia, age 40, of Moore Haven, passed away August 29, 2020 in Moore Haven.
He was born Aug. 17, 1980 in McAllen, TX, to the late Feliciano Erebia and Josefa Gonzalez . 

Survivors include two brothers: Rolando Erebia and Jose Luis Erebia four sisters: Manuela Aguilar, Susana Villegas, Edith Laraez and Rosa Cruz He was predeceased by a brother: Feliciano Jr. and his sisters: Maria Elena Venegas, Linda Erebia and Josefa Gonzalez. 

Funeral services will be held Wednesday, September 2, 2020 at 11:00 am at Akin-Davis Funeral Home, LaBelle with Sixto Sayaz officiating. Visitation will be Wednesday from 10 to 11AM at Akin-Davis Funeral Home, LaBelle, FL. 

Justin H Savacool, age 36, of Okeechobee, passed away August 28, 2020. He was born May 11, 1984 in Palm Beach Gardens, FL, to Jeff and Elizabeth (Luckey) Savacool 

Survivors include his wife: Danette Bowers His mother: Elizabeth (Luckey) Fraund His father: Jeff Savacool one brother: Sean Savacool 

Funeral service will be held Thursday, September 3, 2020 at 10:00 am at Ortona Cemetery, Moore Haven. Arrangements by Akin-Davis Funeral Home - LaBelle.

Thomas "Tommy" George Olson was born March 6, 1993 in Boynton Beach, Florida, he passed away August 26, 2020 in Lake Placid, Florida at the age of 27. 

Thomas was born with special needs, where mastering life skills was always a challenge. Thomas always succeeded at bringing happiness, joy and smiles into the hearts of everyone who knew him. He graduated from Royal Palm School in Lantana, Florida at the age of 22. 

Thomas always had a love for music, motorcycles and fishing. Thomas was never held back from participating in activities with family and friends. Thomas touched the hearts of everyone he met. 

He is survived by his loving parents: George Arthur and Patricia Lee Olson, sisters: Jennifer Olson and Melissa Olson Krull, two nieces: Sierra and Gracie, and two nephews: Justin and Julih. 

A memorial service will be held at a later date. Arrangements by Akin-Davis Funeral Home - LaBelle.