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

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

Florida reported an additional 17,192 cases of COVID-19 – eclipsing the previous high of 15,300 cases that occurred on July 12 in the middle of the summer peak.

Since March 1, 1,323,315 residents and visitors from the state diagnosed with COVID-19.

Of these, 323,996 were registered only in December – accounting for almost a quarter (24.5%) of the state’s cases in the last 10 months.

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

St. Johns, Nassau and Flagler counties have set day records for new confirmed cases. St. Johns County reported an additional 244 cases, Nassau County added 110 cases and Flagler County reported 87 new cases.

There were 133 additional deaths in Florida, reported on Thursday, bringing the state total to 21,990. Four of them were in northeastern Florida: two in Clay County and one in St. Johns and Alachua County.

There were 6,363 people hospitalized in the state on 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’s database.

After an unusual increase to a 22.81% positivity rate on Monday, which the state attributed to the holiday closure tests, the state returned to an 8.72% positivity rate on Tuesday’s data. fair and a positivity rate of 11.57% on Wednesday.

According to the state’s vaccination chart: 23,269 first doses were administered Wednesday, bringing the total in the state to 211,165. Vaccines were given on Tuesday to the first elderly people who were not in long-term care facilities, and some counties in northeastern Florida began scheduling appointments to administer vaccines to people aged 65 and over in their communities.

RELATED: COVID-19 vaccine in northeastern Florida: what we know by county

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