Florida closes 2020 with largest one-day increase in COVID-19 cases

JACKSONVILLE, Florida – Florida ended 2020 with a record one-day increase in newly confirmed coronavirus cases, according to data released by the state’s health department on Thursday.

Florida has reported an additional 17,192 cases of COVID-19 – eclipsing the previous day’s high of 15,300 cases established on July 12 in the midst of the summer peak.

As of March 1, 1,323,315 residents and people visiting the state have been diagnosed with COVID-19.

Of those, 323,996 were reported just in December – accounting for almost a quarter (24.5%) of the state’s cases in the past 10 months.

Duval County added 997 coronavirus cases in data as of Thursday. Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 61,321 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Jacksonville.

St. Johns, Nassau and Flagler counties set one-day records for new confirmed cases. St. Johns County reported 244 more cases, Nassau County added 110, and Flagler County reported 87 new cases.

There were 133 more deaths in Florida reported Thursday, bringing the state’s total to 21,990. Four of them were in northeast Florida: two in Clay County and one in each of them. St. Johns and Alachua counties.

There were 6,363 people hospitalized in the state as of Thursday afternoon with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19 – including 418 in Duval, 98 in Clay and 179 in Alachua County, according to the state database.

After an unusual spike to a 22.81% positivity rate on Monday that the state attributed to testing for post-holiday closures, the state returned to an 8.72% positivity rate in Tuesday’s data and to an 11.57% positivity rate on Wednesday.

According to the state immunization scorecard: 23,269 first doses were administered Wednesday, bringing the state total to 211,165. Vaccines were administered Tuesday to the first elderly people not housed in nursing homes. long-term care, and some counties in northeast Florida have started making appointments to administer vaccines to people 65 and older in their communities.

RELATED: COVID-19 Vaccine in Northeast Florida: What We Know by County

The first vaccines intended for the general public in Northeast Florida will be administered on Monday.