Drew Dixon
Jacksonville surpassed 55,000 cases of coronavirus while the number of deaths due to the illness has exceeded 700 in the city, according to Florida Department of Health data released Tuesday.
There are now 55,553 infections in Jacksonville, an uptick of 597 cases in one day. But in starker terms, it’s a figure that shows the disease has not let up.
Four and a half months ago on Aug. 8, Jacksonville recorded 23,166 cases of coronavirus. Even though the outbreak eased in September and even into October, the resurgence in recent weeks has negated any lulls.
Jacksonville also added seven new deaths for a total of 706 as of Monday. That figure has accelerated dramatically since Aug. 8 when there were 188 deaths due to the pandemic. That’s nearly a four-fold increase since the halfway point of the outbreak that began in March.
St. Johns County saw an increase of 168 infections Tuesday for a total of 11,659 and 109 fatalities.
Clay County also saw a notable jump in Tuesday’s data release. Clay went from 10,023 cases to 10,146 with two new deaths for a total of 174.
Nassau County has a total of 4,194 infections and 65 deaths.
Baker county now has 2,329 infections and 36 fatalities.
Across the five-county First Coast, the region broke 83,000 total infections for a total of 83,881. Jacksonville accounts for the vast majority of the population in the region.
The First Coast’s COVID-19 death toll increased by nine Tuesday, rising to 1,090.
Across Florida there are now 1,223,015 infections in the state and 21,052 fatalities attributed to coronavirus.
