JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Florida added 7,515 cases of coronavirus on Saturday -- near the state’s average for the past seven days -- bringing the total since the pandemic reached Florida early last year to 1,821,937.
The Florida Department of Health reported Saturday an additional 118 deaths of residents or visitors to the state, bringing the total to 29,179, although many of those deaths occurred days or weeks earlier.
Recommended Videos
Of those deaths, 19 were in Northeast Florida counties tracked by News4Jax, including seven in Flagler County (83 total), four in Duval County (1,016), three in Putnam County (113), two in St. Johns County (182) and one each in Bradford (49), Columbia (149) and Nassau (106) counties.
According to the state, 32 of the additional deaths were in long-term care facilities, which have reported more than 10,000 deaths since the pandemic began -- more than one-third of Florida’s total.
Saturday’s report comes a day after the first case of the U.K. COVID variant was reported in Jacksonville, according to the Duval County Health Department. The state now leads the nation in cases of the variant, with 347 confirmed diagnoses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state’s daily report does not break out COVID-variant cases.
Florida and Duval County COVID-19 cases per day
There were 4,681 people in Florida hospitalized on Saturday afternoon with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19. Since the pandemic began, 75,991 people have been hospitalized with the virus.
The percent of tests completed Friday that were positive was 6.44% -- up slightly from the day before. The positivity rate in most local counties was lower than the state average.
There have now been 2,293,883 people vaccinated in Florida so far and 1,028,315 -- 4.78% of the state’s population -- have now received both shots.