Jacksonville sees 26 coronavirus deaths in one day, breaking record

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Jacksonville got hit with a triple dose of bad coronavirus news Thursday when new figures showed the city exceed the 300-mark for fatalities caused by the illness, broke 28,000 total cases and it was a record-setting day for the number of confirmed deaths, according to Florida Department of Health data.

There are now 302 total deaths attributed to COVID-19 in Jacksonville. The grim benchmark came at the expense of a new record for single-day fatalities at 26.

That’s 10 more deaths than the previous single-day record in Jacksonville. Previously, the worst single-day record for the number of people who died from the illness was on July 25 when there were 16 new fatalities recorded in Jacksonville.

While that day was only a month and a half ago, there were less than half the number of total fatalities in Jacksonville on that day with 138 at the time.

Jacksonville’s total case count also broke the dubious threshold of 28,000 total coronavirus cases Thursday. There are now 28,051 total infections in the city since the outbreak of the pandemic in March.

For the first time in a week, Jacksonville exceeded the 5% mark for positivity rates for all coronavirus tests administered.

That figure stood at 5.8% on Thursday, up from 4.96% Wednesday.

Jacksonville’s coronavirus figures have been leveling out since late August.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises that locales are no longer “hot spots” for COVID-19 outbreaks when the positivity rate drops below 5% for two straight weeks. Jacksonville’s positivity rate for the past week was 4.38%

The previous week between Aug. 27 and Sept. 2, the positivity rate for coronavirus tests in Jacksonville had been erratic with three days dropping blow 5%. But it peaked at 8.55% on Sept. 2.