Florida nears 1 million COVID-19 cases

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Florida Department of Health on Monday confirmed 6,658 additional cases of COVID-19, bringing the state’s known total of cases to 999,319 since March 1 when the first person in the state tested positive.

The state also confirmed 98 new deaths on Monday, bring Florida’s total during the pandemic to 18,834. There were five additional deaths reported in Jacksonville on Monday, which pushes Duval County’s total above 600. There were also two deaths in Union County and one in Nassau County in Monday’s FDOH report.

Florida and Duval County daily COVID-19 case increases since June 1

Hospitalizations related to COVID-19 continued to rise, with 4,160 confirmed cases in hospitals on Monday afternoon. That number has steadily risen since October after plateauing at around 2,000 hospitalizations daily for weeks following the summer surge of the virus.

Duval County hospitals report 211 COVID-19 patients, 48 in Clay County and 22 in St. Johns County. Columbia County reports it is at capacity on ICU beds while Clay County is down to 14% of available ICU beds.

The percentage of people testing positive on Sunday rose to 8.4% and most area counties’ rate of positivity also increases -- with Duval, Nassau and Baker counties reaching double digits for the first time in weeks.

Unlike in the spring and summer, officials have not adopted additional restrictions in Florida to prevent the virus from spreading.

Earlier this month, the Washington Post reported on a model by Columbia University epidemiologist Jeffrey Shaman and his team estimated that 3.6 million people are infected and shedding enough virus to infect others -- that’s nearly 1% of the population of the United States and well higher than the official count of active cases.