JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Florida far surpassed its previous single-day reporting record for COVID-19 cases on Saturday with 11,458 additional cases, according to numbers released by the state Department of Health.
Florida’s previous one-day high for coronavirus cases came Thursday with 10,109 cases, well above the previous single-day record of 9,585 cases set last Saturday.
Recommended Videos
The statewide total now sits at 190,052.
The state reported 18 additional coronavirus-related deaths in the last 24 hours -- none of those in the 11 Northeast Florida counties News4Jax has been tracking. As of Saturday, there had been 3,803 deaths reported in the state.
Duval County added 653 cases, bringing Jacksonville’s total to 8,614. St. Johns County added 71 additional cases, for a total of 1,259 cases.
The total number of Jacksonville residents diagnosed with COVID-19 has been slowly building since early March and has risen faster than the state average. According to Saturday’s report, the daily rate of positive tests on Friday was 14.5% in Duval County and was 14.1% statewide
New hospitalizations and deaths are also ticking upward in Florida, although not as dramatically as the new cases. Hospitalizations statewide on Friday increased to a total of 15,735 since the beginning of March.
Local officials and health experts are worried that people will gather over this July 4 holiday weekend and spread the virus through close contact. They’ve tried to mitigate spread by shutting bars statewide. Some regional attractions, such as Zoo Miami and Jungle Island, have closed. Universal Studios in Orlando is open.
For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. But for others, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, the highly contagious virus can cause severe symptoms and be fatal.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.