Florida registers biggest increase in COVID-19 in 1 day in the last 2 weeks

JACKSONVILLE, Florida. – Florida added 15,019 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in data released on Saturday by the state health department – this is the highest number the state has seen in a single day in the past two weeks.

The last time Florida reported more than 15,000 cases was on January 15, when the state saw 16,875.

Across the state, 1.7 million people tested positive for COVID-19 and 26,795 have died since the first case was reported on March 1.

A day after positivity rates soared across the board, Friday’s test numbers returned to previous levels with a positivity rate of 6.62% for the state and no county in the area above 10%.

The Florida Department of Health reported 110 deaths attributed to COVID-19 on Saturday. Four additional deaths in Duval County have pushed Jacksonville to more than 900 deaths since the pandemic began. St. Johns and Putnam reported three more deaths each, Nassau added two and Alachua added one.

The total number of patients with coronavirus in Duval County since the beginning of the pandemic has surpassed 81,000.

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Although vaccines administered in Florida rise to 1.65 million, supplies are still limited and there are concerns that only 5% of residents who received their first dose are black and 8% are Hispanic. Overall, blacks represent 17% of the state’s population and Hispanics 23%.

On Friday, the state’s Hispanic Federation asked DeSantis to “quickly resolve cultural barriers” that prevent community vaccination, saying they are twice as likely to contract the disease as white residents.

Dr. Fred Southwick, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Florida, said the vaccine has not yet been widely distributed to reduce the number of cases. Instead, he attributed the current decline to the fact that anyone who contracted the virus at a Christmas or New Year’s party has already been diagnosed.

He said it was still important for Floridians to wear masks and avoid large gatherings, as the new mutations that are arriving in the state are more contagious.

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“We are not out of danger,” he said.

His UF colleague, Dr. Glenn Morris Jr., said that while there is no indication that two more contagious mutations of the virus circulating in the UK and South Africa are widespread in Florida, further testing is needed. He said that only 200 samples per week from 80,000 positive tests are being verified for the variants. He asked the state to make better use of its private and university laboratories.