Massive winter storm closes airports and delays vaccine deliveries to Florida
A winter storm with icy roads, power outages and dangerous low temperatures has snarled traffic from coast to coast — and will delay shipments of coronavirus vaccines to Florida.
Jared Moskowitz, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said the state has been alerted the massive weather system will delay the Monday-Tuesday shipment of vaccines.
It is unclear how many doses will be affected and when deliveries will resume. The state's Department of Health did not immediately respond to a request for information.
Its office in Collier County, for example, is making no new appointments for the vaccine this week, according to the Naples Daily News. It was unclear how many doses would be delayed there.
The severe winter weather has sparked emergency declarations in at least seven states, including Alabama, Oregon, Oklahoma, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi and Texas.
The storm is so big that a 2,000-mile trip from the Rio Grande River along the Texas border to the St. Lawrence River Seaway along the Canadian border would be entirely in the area of current winter storm warnings or watches.
Flights into and out of airports in Houston, Baton Rouge, Dallas-Fort Worth, Chicago O'Hare International and several other airports have been halted or delayed.
James Call is a member of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jcall@tallahassee.com. Follow on him Twitter: @CallTallahassee
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