First Coast coronavirus infections have increased by nearly 5,000 in one week

The First Coast saw the increase in COVID-19 infections grow by nearly 5,000 and added more than 50 new fatalities attributed to the pandemic in the past week, according to Florida Department of Health data released Wednesday.

There are now 72,590 cases of coronavirus in the five-county Northeast Florida region. That’s a notable spike from just a week ago when on Dec. 2 there were 67,603 infections in the region.

In terms of fatalities, the First Coast has had an increase of 5% of the total deaths caused by the pandemic in just one week. Wednesday’s fatality count was 1,020 on the First Coast, up from 969 just a week ago.

Duval County, the most populace county in the region, is accounting or most of those increases in figures. Jacksonville had a total of 48,250 infections, according to Wednesday’s data. That’s up by more than 3,000 cases a week ago when the total number of infections in Jacksonville stood at 44,969.

Jacksonville added three new fatalities Wednesday for a total of 661, a weekly increase of 27 new deaths, which is a 4% increase of the total fatality figure.

Duval County was the only First Coast county to record any new pandemic-related fatalities Wednesday.

St. Johns County now has 9,852 infections, up from 9,085 a week ago while holding at 102 fatalities.

Clay County recorded 8,810 COVID-19-related deaths, up from 8,195 fatalities a week ago. Clay’s death figure remained unchanged at 162.

Nassau County now has 3,543 total infections, an increase from last week’s figure of 3,291 while maintaining the same figure for fatalities at 61.

And Baker County has a total of 2,135 cases of coronavirus, up from the Dec. 2 figure of 2,063 and added no new fatalities Wednesday holding at 34.

Statewide, there are now 1,083,362 total cases of coronavirus since the outbreak began in March and 19,716 fatalities due to the pandemic in Florida.