Jacksonville racks up another record for new COVID-19 cases

A vacant downtown Jacksonville might have helped keep coronavirus from infecting the homeless population. Photo by Drew Dixon.

Jacksonville set another record for an increase in coronavirus cases for the third day in a row while the First Coast region surged past 6,000 cases, according to Florida Department of Health data released Saturday.

The number of Jacksonville’s COVID-19 cases increased to 4,848 Friday, that’s up by a staggering 678 cases from the previous day and represents a massive increase from Thursday’s increase of 447.

Jacksonville’s sensational daily increases come as the Republican National Convention draws closer. While Mayor Lenny Curry has touted the event as a big economic boom for the area to the tune of $100 million from the GOP faithful descending on the city. Two separate public opinion polls show the majority of area residents fear the RNC will only exacerbate the spread of coronavirus.

Jacksonville added 13 new hospitalizations Friday with a total of 350. There were no new deaths, holding steady at 64.

Other areas in the five-county First Coast showed notable increases in daily case counts.

St. Johns County, a county with a population of less than 500,000, showed an increase of 74 new cases Friday. St. Johns now has 756 infections.

While it was a spike for St. Johns County, it was slightly less than Thursday’s increase of 83 new cases. St. Johns had five new hospitalizations and no new deaths, holding at seven.

Clay County added 36 new infections Friday, up from Thursday’s 580. There was  one new hospitalization and no new deaths.

Nassau County added 10 new cases Friday while Baker County added four. Those counties show no changes in other data.

The First Coast now has 6,429 cases of coronavirus while 110 people have died from the illness and another 544 have been hospitalized.

Across Florida, 132,545 people have been infected with COVID-19. There have been 3,390 deaths and 14,136 hospitalizations.