As Florida begins the process of reopening long-term care facilities across the state to visitors, Northeast Florida reported another three COVID-19 related deaths Thursday in long-term care facilities: one in Duval and two in Clay County.
According to data from the Florida Department of Health, Duval County has reported 111 coronavirus-related deaths in long-term care facilities, and Clay County has now reported 46.
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Five women, ranging in age from 92 to 101, were added Thursday to Jacksonville’s overall count of COVID-19 deaths. Duval County has reported 267 total deaths related to coronavirus since the pandemic began.
RELATED: UF Health Jacksonville has seen 74 COVID-19 deaths, nearly 500 recover
Clay County’s two additional deaths were a man and woman, both age 93, whose cases were first counted by the state on the same day: July 16. Clay County has now reported 79 total deaths.
Statewide, Florida added 149 deaths to bring the state’s total to 11,800 since the pandemic began.
Florida reported 3,571 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19, and removing outlier data from a massive Quest labs data dump on Tuesday, Florida is averaging just under 3,000 new cases a day over the last week.
In Northeast Florida, Jacksonville added 434 cases to reach 27,241 with a 8.62% positivity rate in Thursday’s data.
County-by-county breakdown for Northeast Florida
Florida health officials announced Tuesday before releasing the daily update that the state has severed ties with Quest Diagnostics, one of the country’s largest health testing providers, after the company failed to submit timely results of 75,000 COVID-19 test results, some dating as far back as April.
Gov. Ron DeSantis called the company’s failure “egregious.”
The company blamed the delay on “technical issues,” saying in a statement that “the issue has since been resolved.”
The company said there were no unusual delays in notifying people of their test results.
Florida and Duval County’s daily COVID-19 case increases
Notwithstanding Tuesday’s outlier jump in cases from the Quest dump, Florida’s daily case increases seem to have leveled off somewhat as school districts across the state settle in to the new school year and long-term care facilities prepare to welcome visitors for the first time in months.
Recommendations from a panel tasked with coming up with new rules for long-term care visitation include allowing every resident to designate two “essential” caregivers and two “compassionate” caregivers who would have access to the residents.
In terms of general visitation, residents will be allowed to designate up to five general visitors, though no more than two will be allowed to visit at a time.