COVID-19 continues to brutalize Duval County

Duval County continues to suffer the impacts of the ongoing pandemic, with Jacksonville hospitals buckling under the case load demands of COVID-19.

The most current statistics from July 26 to Aug. 1, courtesy of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, paint a grim picture.

The county saw 8,343 cases, roughly 1,200 a day. The rolling average increased 30% over the previous seven day period.

The percentage of positive tests also was deeply concerning: a 27.79% positivity rate, up 2% over the previous seven day period.

The 961 new hospital admissions, meanwhile, were up nearly 49% over the week prior. Nearly 32% of the beds in the system — effectively, one in three — host coronavirus patients in various stages of recovery. More than 52% of ICU berths, meanwhile, see COVID-19 patients fighting for their lives. That’s up nearly 16% from the previous seven days.

Hospitals are sending out SOS signals in various ways.

Baptist Health offers daily updates on COVID-19 patients in the system.

“507 COVID patients in our health system, 95 in ICU – 10 of these are at Wolfson Children’s Hospital, 3 in ICU We admitted 73 COVID patients yesterday,” read a Monday afternoon tweet.

Meanwhile, Mayo Clinic has moved to “surge” mode as of Sunday afternoon, as Action News Jax first reported.

“Like all of our neighboring Northeast Florida hospitals, Mayo Clinic in Florida has seen a dramatic increase in COVID-19 positive patients in recent weeks. For this reason, we have activated our hospital surge plan and are making adjustments to inpatient areas to accommodate caring for an increased number of patients …”

“Mayo Clinic patients who have scheduled appointments should continue to seek care for their appointments/visits, procedures, and surgeries. At this time, we have not canceled patient care unless it was patient-directed. In specific cases, Mayo Clinic may make modifications to schedules given the circumstances in the community, but these are on a case-by-case basis,” the hospital asserted.