Florida sees jumps in coronavirus cases

Florida — For the first time in June, Florida started to see a decrease in positive COVID-19.

Since June 1st, the Florida Department of Health reported more than 1,000 new confirmed cases each day. Thursday the state hit a record high of 1,419 new cases. Friday, the daily report showed 1,305 new cases, Saturday 1,270 new cases and 1,100 new cases were reported on Sunday.

“Today, it does make sense that our positives have increased. With the expanding of testing criteria and more resourcing available and also a larger pool of people that are being tested,” Tawanda Washington with the Florida Department of Health said.

Washington is the Incident Commander for the COVID-19 Response Team in Duval County. She is also the Assistant Director of Nursing and covers the disease control programs.

Since the Department loosened guidelines for testing and more sites have been opened, she said more cases have been diagnosed.

Washington also confirmed the Department will be deploying mobile testing sites in Jacksonville this week. It will announce times and locations on the City of Jacksonville’s website.

“We are focusing the mobile unit out in areas where we’re unsure if people are actually accessing services,” Washington said. “We’re going out to specific zip codes far out, kind of on the northside and westside of town to ensure that we are offering testing to those that may not come into TIAA (Bank Field, Lot J) or come into legends to be able to get tested.”

Monday’s daily report showed a slight decrease of 966 new cases, bringing the new total cases to 64,904. Washington said rainy weather shutting down testing sites could be an indicator for a decrease in cases.

Although more testing is being done, the percentage of people who test positive for the virus remains low in Duval County. Monday, the City of Jacksonville said the positive percentage rate is 2.8%, which is lower than the state’s average of 5.3%.

Action News Jax Reporter Elizabeth Pace also spoke to local hospitals about the COVID-19 hospitalization rate. All community hospitals reported a decrease in COVID-19 patients.

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