JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Florida continues to report high numbers of deaths related to COVID-19 even as the daily case increases remain lower than they were during the state’s July peak, just as health experts predicted.
Florida reported another 155 deaths of residents and non-residents in Wednesday’s data released by the state health department. Six of those deaths were in Northeast Florida.
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Jacksonville reported three additional deaths, all women aged 75 or older, a 69-year-old man died in Putnam County and an 85-year-old woman died in St. Johns County.
The 3,220 new cases reported Wednesday remains a fraction of the daily increases Florida was experiencing one month ago. The state’s daily total peaked July 15 when more than 15,000 cases were reported, but has been declining ever since. It is now back to daily increases the state was seeing in mid-June.
Overall, the state has now reported 608,722 confirmed cases. The state has reported 10,872 deaths since the pandemic began appearing in Florida at the beginning of March. Last week, the state has reported an average death rate of 125 per day and an average of 151 deaths per day during August. Only Texas, at 203 deaths, has a higher daily average over the past week. It has about 50% more residents.
Duval County reported 147 new cases in Wednesday’s data with a positivity rate of 4.85%.
Hospitalizations due to COVID-19 have also been declining, dropping by almost 1,000 statewide in the last week. Hospitalizations peaked July 23 at above 9,500.
The state’s positivity rate on tests returned Tuesday dropped to 5.75% and averaged 6.68% last week and 9.33% the week before that.
The positive trends in positivity rates come as more districts reopen to in-person learning and grapple with how to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in schools. Many school districts are also weighing the best way to deliver information to parents when infections are reported in schools.
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In the meantime, districts are being advised to move cautiously after an appeal automatically put on hold a judge’s ruling that threw out the requirement that brick and mortar schools in Florida must be open by Aug. 31.
Common symptoms of COVID-19 include fever, cough, breathing trouble, sore throat, muscle pain, and loss of taste or smell. Most people develop only mild symptoms. But some people, usually those with other medical complications, develop more severe symptoms, including pneumonia.
Deaths from COVID-19 usually occur two weeks or more after diagnosis, so epidemiologists have said Florida’s fatality rate should shrink in the coming weeks if confirmed infections continue to shrink.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.