277 COVID-19 deaths in Florida reported the state’s record on Friday

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The number of deaths from COVID-19 reported by the Florida Department of Health on Friday brought together the state’s deadliest day in August – a tragic reminder that the state is still in a second peak of this pandemic.

This brings the number of deaths from the virus in the state to 25,405.

Only nine of the deaths reported Friday were from northeast Florida: three in Baker County and one in Bradford, Columbia, Duval, Flagler, Nassau, and St. Johns counties.

State health officials confirmed an additional 13,719 cases of coronavirus on Friday, bringing the total number of cases since March 1 to 1,627,603.

Duval County added 1,034 new cases of the virus Friday – the sixth time the daily increase in Jacksonville cases exceeded 1,000 in the past four weeks.

The percentage of positive tests was up again Thursday, surpassing 13% statewide, Duval County was above 10% for the first time in a few days, St. Johns’s rose to 13.16%, Clay reported 14.6%, Nassau was 16.8%, Flagler’s rate was 18.51% and Columbia County’s rate was 20.31%. Only the positivity rates of Alachua and Putnam counties were below 10% on Thursday.

Since the start of the outbreak, there have been at least 69,735 hospital admissions attributed to the novel coronavirus in Florida, and the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration reported Friday afternoon that 6,904 are currently hospitalized with the primary diagnosis COVID-19 – versus 7,367 people at the beginning of the week.

Florida also passed another troubling milestone this week, reaching more than 9,000 deaths of residents and staff of long-term care facilities – with the vast majority of seniors in nursing homes and assisted living facilities.

At least 1,183,012 vaccines have been administered in Florida, with 123,971 people in the state receiving both needed injections, but some vaccination sites have had to close because they used up their allotted amount and there is ongoing frustration from those eligible and that have not done so. be able to make an appointment for a recording.

But officials are trying to step up vaccinations against the coronavirus, concerns are spreading about a new, more contagious variant that could take hold in the state.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Florida had 46 confirmed cases of the more transmissible strain of COVID-19 as of Sunday, eclipsing California with 40 confirmed cases at last count. The species was first discovered in the UK in December and is starting to spread worldwide.

Early evidence suggests that the new species is no more deadly than previous species that sickened nearly 24.2 million in the US and killed more than 400,000. Florida is now approaching 1.6 million confirmed cases, with nearly 10,000 new cases and about 160 additional deaths reported Tuesday. To date, the state has reported more than 24,400 virus-related deaths.

“This new strain is more contagious, which means more people are getting infected,” said Dr. Frederick Southwick, a professor of medicine and an infectious disease specialist at the University of Florida. “If we had a problem, now we will. have a bigger problem. ”

Communities across the country are racing against the rise in infections as they wait for more doses of two vaccines approved for use against the virus.

“The game plan is what it was: vaccinate as many people as possible, as soon as possible, try to really fight this virus and drop the total number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths,” said Dr. Glenn Morris, Director of the Emerging Pathogens Institute at the University of Florida.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.