Dannielle Garcia

Fort Myers Beach is about to get a whole new look and feel, as construction crews broke ground on the Margaritaville Resort Friday. For a while, the resort was blocked by lawsuits. Then, the pandemic delayed construction. Now, fencing is up around the area, and they’re finally ready to start building. The resort will take […]

Areas of Southwest Florida prone to flooding, like Fort Myers Beach, are now preparing for Tropical Depression Fred, likely to be a tropical storm by the weekend. All you need is a shovel or something for scooping sand into a bag and you can load up on anti-flood sandbags behind the Fort Myers Beach town […]

Hospitals are overwhelmed and understaffed in Southwest Florida. Hundreds of patients are hospitalized with COVID-19 in Lee County, adding to the caseload and leaving hospitals trying to find a way to keep up. Lee Health reported Wednesday afternoon they have 492 COVID patients in their hospitals, and they believe it’s only going to keep getting […]

Ninety-one percent of Lee Health’s staffed beds are full, and the number of patients coming through their doors isn’t slowing down. As cases rise, Lee Health has to prepare for more difficult scenarios. Over the weekend, Lee Health hospitals surpassed their all-time high of 372 patients on July 20, 2020, with 419 now hospitalized. Thirty-six […]

The CEO of NCH Healthcare System and medical staff delivered a plea to the Southwest Florida community on Friday: Get vaccinated or we’ll pay the consequences. “We need to unify more than ever,” said Paul Hiltz during the update on the increasing number of COVID-19 cases and their plans to respond to the rise in […]

A coronavirus surge plan has been activated for hospitals seeing a large rise in COVID-19 patients. Lee Health hospitals are filling up to the point that nurses are treating patients in hallways. They’re moving groups of COVID-19 patients to their own unit and outside of the overcrowded hospitals. They were treating 344 COVID-19 patients Thursday, […]

COVID hospital admissions at NCH broke a record on Wednesday with 149 patients currently being treated at their hospitals after testing positive. The patients range in age from 17 to 100, with a median of 57. Of the total number of patients, 123, or about 83%, are unvaccinated, according to figures published on the hospital […]

Florida is leading the nation in COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations. While Gov. Ron DeSantis said he expects these numbers to drop within the next few weeks, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show a rapid rise. More than 11,000 people are in hospitals across the state with COVID-19, a new record high […]

There are reports that Florida has only distributed just two percent of the money the federal government’s made available for rental and mortgage assistance. But locally, that’s not the case. Some Florida counties are topping a list for areas not getting federal CARES Act rental assistance funds to people facing eviction. Collier County is ranked […]

Some of your neighbors worry they’ll lose their homes after the eviction moratorium expired over on Saturday. People who can’t pay up are desperate to find a way to stay in their homes, and WINK News spoke with one woman in that exact situation. Some people fear getting COVID-19, but others fear losing their homes […]