Drew Dixon
While the count of coronavirus cases remained relatively flat Tuesday, Jacksonville posted an additional death due to the illness, according to data released by the Florida Department of Health.
Duval County recorded its 17th fatality blamed on COVID-19 Tuesday.
Jacksonville showed a slight uptick in the number of total cases going from 896 Monday to 909 Tuesday. Duval County also saw an increase in the number of hospitalizations bumping up from 80 to 82 Tuesday.
The additional death comes on the same day that Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry announced the formation of a local task force to help the city rebound from recent closures to the coronavirus outbreak.
He also cited falling coronavirus statistics in the past two weeks as support for his decision to open local beaches Friday and other preparations for recovery in the making. But the figures have been up and down since the weekend.
“The recovery will have some sense of volatility,” Curry said, noting that this is a “widespread” recession, one that will make the recovery process difficult to predict.
Meanwhile, Clay County was the only other First Coast county to post any change in coronavirus figures Tuesday. Clay went from 249 cases Monday to 256 Tuesday. Clay also added another hospitalization going from 48 Monday to 49 Tuesday.
Baker, Nassau and St. Johns counties showed no change in data from Monday to Tuesday.
Across the five-county First Coast region, there were 1,422 total cases of COVID-19, 35 fatalities blamed on the sickness and 184 victims who’ve been hospitalized as of Tuesday.
Around the state, there were 27,869 total cases of coronavirus Tuesday evening, 867 deaths and 4,226 hospitalizations.
