Florida reports over 10,000 coronavirus cases for second day in a row

JACKSONVILLE, Florida – Florida confirmed 10,177 more cases of COVID-19 on Friday, marking two consecutive days in 10,000 for the first time since the third week of July.

The state now has 1,039,207 total cases of COVID-19 and 19,236 resident deaths, according to the Department of Health. Duval County added 537 cases and St. Johns 122.

Another 124 deaths were confirmed in Friday’s report. Three of those deaths occurred in Columbia County, one in Jacksonville and one in Alachua County.

Daily cases from Florida and Duval County reported since June 1

There have been at least 56,095 hospitalizations attributed to the novel coronavirus since the coronavirus reached Florida. As of Friday afternoon, 4,334 people were hospitalized in the state with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19 – 229 of those in Jacksonville. Only 17% of intensive care beds in Duval County were available Friday and only 12% available in Clay and Nassau counties. All 20 beds in the Columbia County intensive care unit were occupied on Friday.

The statewide positivity rate from Thursday’s testing was 7.49%. The 14-day average positivity rate is 7.5% and the 7-day average is 8.1%. No county in northeast Florida posted a positivity above 10% for the first time this week, even though most were above the state average.

This week, the state received advice from the White House Coronavirus Task Force recommending that many residents assume they are infected if they gather for Thanksgiving outside their homes.

Florida updated its report on COVID-19 in schools on Wednesday, showing that more than 1,000 elementary and high schools in South Florida have reported infections in the past three months.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has said he believes the first coronavirus vaccine approvals in the United States will come next week and he encourages Floridians to take the vaccine when it becomes available to them, but he said he won’t Would not reimpose the restrictions or require masks, although he would encourage people to wear them and move away socially. He believes that the economic and social damage caused by the restrictions outweighs the risk posed by the virus.

“I’m against warrants, period. I don’t think they work, “DeSantis said in his last public appearance on Nov. 30.” There are accounts that the locks work and they don’t.

Epidemiologists Cindy Prins of the University of Florida and Jason Salemi of the University of South Florida said on Friday that the lifting of restrictions has led some to stop taking proven and effective precautions like wearing masks and social distancing. . A lot of people wanted to get back to normal.

“You’re tired of doing all of these things, you’re tired of COVID and so I think you’re starting to relax,” Salemi said.

Salemi said DeSantis has placed great emphasis on protecting vulnerable populations like the elderly, “but it certainly isn’t working. The average daily number of Floridians aged 65 and over reported with a new infection has increased by 81% in the past month.

With cases of the virus caught over Thanksgiving likely to emerge next week and in the run-up to Christmas, Hanukkah and New Years, Prins and Salemi fear Florida will soon be back to July levels and could them. exceed.

“When we get together over the holidays with our families, there will undoubtedly be some high-risk seniors – our parents and grandparents. They are the ones who are going to be infected, ”Salemi said.