Collaboration among state and county agencies, Nobel Prize-winning Doctors Without Borders... Persistence pays off: Governor DeSantis announces free, community-wide testing to begin in Immokalee this week! Governor Ron DeSantis, during an hour-long briefing on reopening the Florida economy on Wednesday, announces new testing sites targeting “under-served” communities across Florida, making special mention of Immokalee. Promising new public/private collaboration starting to take shape in Immokalee to address COVID-19 crisis, giving vulnerable farmworker community new hope with aggressive, comprehensive defense strategy; Collaboration among state and county agencies, Nobel Prize-winning Doctors Without Borders, and CIW to include free testing for symptomatic and non-symptomatic alike, contact tracing, and alternative housing for those who test positive and cannot self-isolate at home; Time remains the enemy, however, as the number of confirmed cases in Immokalee continues to grow and workers prepare to head north for the summer harvest season… Finally, some good news about COVID-19! In the words of local reporters with Fox 4, who shared the exciting update with Southwest Floridians late Wednesday night, “Weeks after creating an online petition, workers in Immokalee are finally getting COVID-19 testing”! Here is the local report: Indeed, this past week has seen more progress in the fight against the coronavirus in Immokalee – and planted the seeds for much more progress to come – than the entire month that preceded it. Today’s post is a chance to share the very latest news from the front in the fight to protect the health of tens of thousands of Florida’s frontline essential workers; to celebrate the initial advances that have been made; and to look at what the future may hold for a community that has lived on the farthest margins of our country’s health care system for far too long. Big news from Gov. DeSantis and the Department of Health… Let’s start with Wednesday’s news from the state and local agencies charged with spearheading the public response to the coronavirus crisis. In addition to the announcement during Gov. DeSantis’s Wednesday press conference (embedded at the top of this post), here was the news from a local Collier County press release dated Wednesday, 4/29: DOH-Collier and National Guard Working Together to Combat COVID-19 Immokalee Testing Site for Residents Starts This Weekend Naples, Fla. — The Florida National Guard, with support of The Florida Department of Health in Collier County (DOH-Collier), will provide COVID-19 testing for Immokalee residents beginning this weekend. Testing will take place on Sunday, May 3, 2020 through Tuesday, May 5, 2020, from 11:00am to 7:00pm at the DOH-Collier Immokalee site, 419 North First Street, Immokalee, 34142. No referral is needed for testing. After a month during which fewer than 200 tests were taken in Immokalee, our call for comprehensive testing has been answered! And most importantly, the approach to testing has changed... Read more about this big news out of Immokalee! Also, tonight from 5-7p ET, we’re teaming up with hip-hop artist and longtime CIW ally Olmeca to host a virtual concert in honor of the essential workers who feed us all featuring, Nancy Sanchez, Son Solidario, the Peace Poets and more. We’ll be live streaming on CIW's Facebook and YouTube page. Join us! Coalition of Immokalee Workers (239) 657 8311 | [email protected] | www.ciw-online.org Connect with us ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ Coalition of Immokalee Workers | 110 S 2nd St, Immokalee, FL 34142 Unsubscribe [email protected] About Constant Contact Sent by [email protected] in collaboration with Try email marketing for free today!