Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday morning said the state was working to restore millions of power outages and help people affected by the damage left behind by Hurricane Milton.

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday morning said the state was working to restore millions of power outages and help people affected by the damage left behind by Hurricane Milton.

Hurricane Milton made landfall near Siesta Key in Sarasota County Wednesday night as a powerful Category 3 storm, bringing with it 120 mph winds and a devastating storm surge.

Several Northeast Florida school districts announced closures on Monday ahead of Hurricane Milton.

Officials say a seventh case of malaria has been documented in a southwest Florida county.

The Florida Department of Health has issued a statewide mosquito-borne illness advisory after four locally contracted cases of malaria were reported along the Gulf Coast south of Tampa.

After many Florida residents obtained sandbags ahead of Ian, which made landfall Wednesday as a Category 4 hurricane in Southwest Florida, several counties are offering some information on what to do with those after the storm.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The number of people hospitalized in Florida with “primary” diagnoses of COVID-19 topped 5,000 on Tuesday, as case numbers and deaths continued to climb. As of early Tuesday evening, 5,103 people were hospitalized with primary diagnoses of COVID-19, up from 4,931 during a Monday count, according to the state Agency for Health Care Administration website. Miami-Dade County had the largest number of people hospitalized Tuesday with 932. It was followed by Broward County, with 514; Hillsborough County, with 300; Duval County, with 286; Palm Beach County, with 283; Pinellas County, with 241; Orange County, with 234; Polk County, with 155; Pasco County, with 136; Escambia County, with 126; Sarasota County, with 125; Lee County, with 124; Osceola County, with 119; Lake County, with 114; Volusia County, with 110; and Collier County, with 109.

ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. St. Johns County School District Deputy Superintendent Brennan Asplen on Tuesday was unanimously selected as the next superintendent of Sarasota County schools. Asplen has worked for the St. Johns County School District as a principal and county administrator for 14 years. I can really bring that to the Sarasota school district and continue to move them in the right direction.Asplen said 31 candidates applied for the job to lead Sarasota County Schools, which was rated as an A school district in 2019. Its unclear who will take over his role in St. Johns County. In March, Deputy Superintendent of Operations for St. Johns County schools Cathy Mittelstadt was chosen as Flagler Countys next school district superintendent.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Florida had 55 new hepatitis A cases reported last week, bringing the total number of cases this year to 2,847 as of Saturday, according to Department of Health data. That brought the number of hepatitis A cases in Volusia County to 259 and Brevard County to 128, respectively. Other counties with the highest number of newly reported cases last week included Lake County, with six cases, and Sarasota County, with five. That brought the number of cases this year in Lake County to 145 and Sarasota County to 80. Nine counties had not reported any cases of hepatitis A this year: Baker, Bradford, Calhoun, Gadsden, Gulf, Highlands, Holmes, Jefferson and Lafayette.