Has Jacksonville seen its peak in COVID-19 cases?

JACKSONVILLE, Florida – It doesn’t show up in the data we get from the CDC yet, but Gov. Ron DeSantis said during a visit to Jacksonville on Tuesday that he had been told that area could experience its summer peak for COVID-19.

“The seven-day average for Duval County has declined 18% since July 31. Visits to Duval County emergency departments for COVID-like illness over the past week have decreased by 14%,” said DeSantis after handing over $ 1,000 checks to police at the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. “We are happy to see these trends and believe they are likely to continue.”

Because the state only releases coronavirus data on cases, hospitalizations and deaths to the public each week, we only know that the federal government is showing that the number of new cases in the state continues to rise, with the seven-day moving average of new cases up to 20,058.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the state had 14,787 confirmed COVID-19 patients in hospitals on Monday – up 173 from the previous day and 145% from the state’s previous peak last July. Of those, 188 were pediatric cases – up nine from the previous day.

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RELATED: COVID-19 hospitalizations increase in Florida

According to the Florida Hospital Association, 89.7% of the state’s intensive care beds are full.

Jacksonville hospitals also show that the number of people hospitalized has continued to rise steadily since mid-July and that they are setting daily records for the highest number of COVID-19 patients at any point in the pandemic. . UF Health Jacksonville – the only hospital to report virus deaths – says 24 patients died in the first 10 days of the month.

Doctors tell News4Jax the situation is getting worse, not getting better, but DeSantis said what he sees will soon be reflected in the numbers.

“These indicators, I just talked about the average cases over seven days, the COVID-type visits, the TR values. These are leading indicators that will be reflected later in the hospital census, ”DeSantis said. “So if you have a decrease in emergency room visits or cases, you’re not necessarily going to see an immediate (decrease) in the hospital census. It usually takes about seven to ten days.

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After DeSantis’ speech, even Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry expressed caution about the future.

“The data he said suggests you’re going to see a plateau and a drop in hospitalizations. But what’s going on right now is the hospitals are busy, the nurses and the medical administrators are incredibly busy, ”said Curry. “I am in communication with the leaders of these hospitals. There’s a lot of stress and a lot of pressure, ”Curry said. “But to confirm what the governor said, I haven’t heard that they are asking us or the governor for resources that they cannot get.”

Online Tuesday morning at the Duval County Health Department to take a COVID-19 test, Johnny Williams, who just killed a friend of the virus, had a message for DeSantis: “Governor, this stuff is killing us here in Florida . Get off here and take the test, stand in line, help us.

Those in need of testing received good news on Tuesday: five more free testing sites will open in the city as of the end of the week. Jacksonville City Council could approve spending $ 4 million in federal COVID relief funding to pay for three additional sites under contract with the city and the other two managed by the Duval County Department of Health.

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New sites will ask for an insurance card, if you have one, but never charge the patient for the test.

WHOLE STORY : Additional free COVID-19 test site locations, times

The additional testing sites are good news for people like Jerry Pascal While, who was in line at the Department of Health when an ambulance was called for a person awaiting a test who had a medical emergency.

“I think they should have more people doing the testing so that the queue isn’t too long and I can just go in and get it,” White said.