Staff Reports
Northeast Florida added another death to the running count of fatalities caused by the coronavirus.
St. Johns County is the latest county to record a fatality due to COVID-19. The Florida Department of Health issued its 11 a.m. update Tuesday on the number of cases in the state and St. Johns County was the latest to join the dubious list of fatalities.
St. Johns County had a total of 22 reported cases of infection from the virus, the DOH said. The fatality involved a 52-year-old man. The St. Johns County fatality comes on top of five other deaths from coronavirus on the First Coast.
Three other fatalities have been recorded in Duval County. The other two deaths in Northeast Florida were reported in Clay County, the DOH said.
Jacksonville’s number of coronavirus cases was unchanged since Monday evening.
There are now 50 total confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Duval County, according to Tuesday data.
Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry issued an executive order calling for businesses in the city to allow more workers to stay at home.
“I issued an executive order that requires employers to let employees work from home if the job duties they have can be performed at home,” Curry said on a Facebook post late Monday.
Monday afternoon Curry said he was frustrated about continued socializing by many Jacksonville residents. He even said he and Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams are now considering instituting a curfew to help stem the spread of coronavirus in the city.
Curry noted planned construction of a field hospital to handle coronavirus cases if local hospitals get overwhelmed.
As of Tuesday morning, 1,412 individuals tested positive for COVID-19 in Florida including 18 deaths. There have been 15,547 tests for coronavirus administered in the state including 13,127 that were negative with another 1,008 still pending.
Nationally, there are 49,768 confirmed cases with 593 deaths. Globally, 407,485 cases have been reported while 17,454 of those people have died from the virus.
