Staff Reports
Jacksonville’s number of coronavirus cases ticked up slightly Monday evening. But more ominous, the number of deaths from the virus in Duval County increased from two to three.
There are now 50 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Duval County, according to data released by the Florida Department of Health at 6 p.m. Monday. The total has grown by four since the 11 a.m. DOH update.
The number of fatalities from coronavirus in Duval County held at two for the past few days, but Monday brought an additional fatality. A total of 12 people diagnosed with COVID-19 have been hospitalized in Jacksonville.
The figures on the DOH website show 23 men and 22 women have tested positive for the disease in Duval County. The average age of coronavirus patients in Jacksonville is 63 years old with the youngest being 19 and the oldest 91.
The tally includes 46 county residents and an additional four Florida residents who do not live in Duval. Five of those cases are travel-related while 14 have no connection to travel and the DOH does not know the source of another 31 cases in Jacksonville.
The increasing numbers come as the city of Jacksonville increased the breadth of its testing availability and Mayor Lenny Curry expressed frustration that many residents were ignoring calls for self-sheltering and social distancing.
In a news conference Monday afternoon, Curry acknowledged he and Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams have put a possible curfew on the table for consideration. Curry said while they have discussed the measure, limits on pragmatic enforcement has stopped the city from going through with curfews for the time being.
But Curry also said he’s looking at expanding an executive order that would direct businesses in the city to limit bringing in employees who are deemed only essential. He added a field hospital is about to be erected though permanent hospitals are not even close to being full as of Monday.
Drive-through testing at TIAA Bank Field, the home stadium for the Jacksonville Jaguars, started accepting people of all ages Monday. The free testing is being conducted in one of the parking lots of the stadium within eye shot of the St. Johns River in downtown Jacksonville.
The city government in recent days also ordered closures for most local gathering places such as beaches and public parks.
There is a total of 515 coronavirus tests administered in Duval County. Of those, 427 people have tested negative and 42 tests are pending.
According to the DOH website there are a total of 1,227 cases of COVID-19 in Florida with 18 deaths attributed to the virus so far. Both of those figures are upticks from Monday morning. There had been 14 deaths in the previous update.
Out of the total number of cases, 1,147 are people who live in the Sunshine State while another 80 are nonresidents. A total of 13,965 tests have been administered in the state while 11,637 of those have tested negative and another 1,101 are still pending.
There were 42,817 cases across the U.S. as of Monday evening, with 579 total deaths. Globally, those numbers were at 374,921 cases and 16,411 deaths, up by nearly 2,000 since Monday morning.
