Florida has 450,000 cases of COVID-19 in less than 6 weeks

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Florida has fallen below 15,000 new cases of COVID-19 just two days from the new year with 15,445 cases of coronavirus added on Saturday.

The state has now reported 456,531 cases since Dec. 1, when Florida topped one million.

The current increase in infections is higher than the state saw during its peak period of coronavirus cases in late July. The number of new cases in Florida during the first nine days of 2021 has reached 141,382, more than the total population of Gainesville.

The Flordia Department of Health has now identified 1,464,697 people with COVID-19 since the first case was identified in the state on March 1, 2020. Florida reported an additional 139 deaths Saturday, raising the state total to 23,150.

An additional 802 cases were added to Duval County on Saturday. Three additional deaths in Jacksonville in Saturday’s FDOH report were one of eight fatalities in the 11 counties in Northeast Florida.

The county of St. Johns added 165 cases on Saturday, Clay County had 170 more, Nassau County added 86 cases and Alachua County had 176 new cases.

The state’s positive test rate on Friday was 10.79%. The rate in Duval County was slightly lower than the rate in Florida and Clay, Nassau and St. Louis counties. Johns above 13%.

On Saturday at 4 p.m., 7,456 people in the state were hospitalized with the virus and there are less than 17% of hospital beds available in the state.

People are eager for vaccines and online registration sites flooded in most counties, including Duval. Florida followed federal recommendations to start vaccinations first for front-line medical workers, as well as residents and residential staff, in mid-December. But instead of lining up essential workers and people over 75, as suggested by federal recommendations, Gov. Ron DeSantis moved in late December to open vaccines more widely to people. aged 65 or over.

To date, more than 514,000 people – just over 2% of the state’s population – have received a COVID-19 vaccine in Florida. This total includes 23,389 in Duval County, 9,688 in St. Louis. Johns and 4,804 to Clay.