Drew Dixon
The radical fluctuations in coronavirus case counts continued Friday in Jacksonville with the latest data from the Florida Department of Health.
Jacksonville broke the 21,000 mark for new COVID-19 infections with 222 new cases confirmed from Thursday morning to Friday morning for a total of 21,038. Jacksonville has been gyrating in its daily case count for the past week with some days breaking 500 new cases and others as low as 137.
Jacksonville confirmed one new death Thursday for a total of 153. There are now 632 hospitalizations, up 11 over Wednesday.
But the county is performing better than the state as a whole in adult intensive care unit capacity with nearly 24% of its beds still available. Statewide, only 16% of beds are available, according to the Agency for Health Care Administration.
The positivity rate continues to show signs of optimism in Jacksonville, however. Thursday’s positive test rate was 6%, the lowest positivity rate for the city since June.
It’s also a continuation of a downward trend for the past week, which saw an average daily positive test rate of 7.9% in the past seven days. Jacksonville hasn’t had a positive test rate above 10% since July 22 when it was 11%. The record high for the city was about 21% set earlier this month.
Elsewhere on the First Coast, St. Johns County added 32 new coronavirus cases Thursday for a total of 3,216. The county confirmed two new deaths for a total of 26. Four patients were hospitalized Thursday.
Clay County saw 50 new infections Thursday, adding up to 2,808. There was one new death due to the illness for a total of 48 and two new hospitalizations for a total of 190. The county has less than 5% of its 40 adult ICU beds available.
Nassau County recorded 17 new cases for a total of 1,054. There were no additional deaths, holding steady at 10, and one new hospitalizations for a total of 61. None of the county’s 8 adult ICU beds are currently available.
Baker County had 13 new infections Thursday for a total of 256. There were no new deaths, holding steady at four and one new hospitalization for a total of 26. The county doesn’t have adult ICU capacity in either of its two hospitals. Patients there, even under normal circumstances, must travel to other counties for intensive care treatment.
Across the First Coast, there are now 28,472 total cases of COVID-19, up 350 over Wednesday. Deaths have climbed to 241, up four over the previous day and Thursday’s total hospitalizations were 1,079, an increase of 19 from Wednesday.
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Editor’s note on methodology: The Florida Department of Health releases new data every morning around 10:45 a.m. The total number reported in those daily reports include the previous day’s totals as well as the most up to date data as of about 9:30 a.m.
Florida Politics uses the report-over-report increase to document the number of new cases each day because it represents the most up-to-date data available. Some of the more specific data, including positivity rates and demographics, considers a different data set that includes only cases reported the previous day.
This is important to note because the DOH report lists different daily totals than our methodology to show day-over-day trends. Their numbers do not include non-residents who tested positive in the state and they only include single-day data, therefore some data in the DOH report may appear lower than what we report.
Our methodology was established based on careful consideration among our editorial staff to capture both the most recent and accurate trends.
2 comments
CP
July 31, 2020 at 6:19 pm
The story isn’t cumulative cases. It’s the rapid decline of cases and lowest positivity rate in some time.
Unless of course you want to scare people…
maudie diana
August 3, 2020 at 2:47 pm
One thing, I have noticed recently, is the fast food workers handling money and putting orders together have stopped wearing gloves saying they are not required to wear them. They also, no longer place the order on trays making contact more imminent. I noticed yesterday a grocery delivery person was also not wearing gloves. Unless all of these people are hand sanitizing between orders, I saw no evidence of that, they are likely the cause of spreading the disease.
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