Drew Dixon
The five-county First Coast region broke 33,000 total cases of coronavirus and exceeded 300 deaths due to the infection, according to Florida Department of Health data released Tuesday.
The number of total cases of COVID-19 in Northeast Florida increased to 33,023, up by 364 from Monday’s report. The number of deaths in the region also crossed the 300 mark for a total of 301 fatalities as 10 new deaths were recorded across the First Coast region.
Most of those deaths occurred in Duval County where Jacksonville has been seeing erratic ups and downs in deaths related to COVID-19. Last week, there were two days in a row where Jacksonville reported double digit fatalities: Friday with 12 and Saturday with 11. Tuesday’s report showed nine new deaths for a total of 198 deaths attributed to the illness.
In other areas of the First Coast:
— Clay County was the only other county that recorded a new coronavirus fatality on Monday. Clay County now stands at 52 deaths attributed to COVID-19. Clay saw 37 new infections Monday for a total of 3,327 cases.
— Baker County continued an unusual increase of coronavirus cases for the rural area with 32 new cases for a total of 964. DOH officials confirmed most of the increase is due to increased testing at the Baker County Correctional Institution. Inmates account for about half of Baker’s case count. Fatalities have remained the same for weeks at four.
— Johns County recorded 78 new infections Tuesday for a total of 3,738. There were no new fatalities, holding at 36.
— Nassau County recorded 14 new cases of coronavirus Tuesday for a total of 1,253 with no change in fatalities, remaining at 11.
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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.
