Drew Dixon
Every county in the five-county First Coast region added at least one new fatality caused by coronavirus while most fell below 10% for the positivity test rate, according to Florida Department of Health data released Tuesday.
There are now 1,017 deaths attributed to COVID-19 in Northeast Florida, that’s up by 13 fatalities recorded the day before when there were 1,004 cases recorded. The region now has 71,895 total cases, up from 70,688 the previous day.
Even the lesser populated counties on the First Coast added coronavirus-related fatalities. Clay County added six fatalities in one day for a total of 162 deaths caused by the pandemic. There are now 8,730 infections recorded in Clay.
Duval County added two new coronavirus fatalities for a total of 658 and 47,8118 infections, a daily increase of more than 1,000 cases.
Nassau County added two fatalities for a total of 61 and 3,502 infections, up from the previous day’s figure of 3,472.
St. Johns County recorded one new fatality for a total of 102 and 9,722 infections, up from 9,620.
And Baker county added one new fatality due to coronavirus for a total of 34 and 2,123 infections, up from 2,114.
On a positive note for the First Coast, every county except one recorded a coronavirus positive test rate below 10%.
Duval County saw its lowest positivity rate in the past week at 7.7% in Tuesday’s data. Jacksonville has been averaging an 8.65% positivity test rate the past week and 8.68% over the past two weeks. Jacksonville’s positive COVID-19 test rate hasn’t fallen below 8% since Nov. 27 when it was 7.18%
Baker County’s positive test rate fell to 7.5%. But Baker’s positive test rates have been fluctuating wildly in the past two weeks. Baker went from its lowest mark of 3.61% Dec. 4 to the highest level of 21.28% on Nov. 29 and an average rate of 10.31% in the past 14 days.
Clay County’s positive test rate dipped to 8.23%, below it’s average rate of 9.88% in the past 14 days.
Nassau County had a positivity rate of 9.34%, below the average of 10.4% the past half month.
St. Johns County was the only county with a positivity rate above 10% at 11.79%. That’s above the St. Johns daily average of 9.86%
Across Florida, there are now 1,073,770 coronavirus cases in Florida with 19,6267 fatalities attributed to the outbreak.
