Jacksonville Metropolitan Area Promoting COVID-19 Surge in Florida

Jacksonville, Florida – The number of Florida coronavirus cases diagnosed last week (45,449) is close to the increase seen in last summer’s surge.It Weekly growth rate of infectious diseases The best state has seen since June 2020.

Almost One-fifth of the country’s new COVID-19 infection is from Florida, White House Coronavirus Coordinator Jeff Seients said in a briefing.

The proportion of Jacksonville and the three neighboring counties is even higher, leading the state in new per capita infections, outpacing the increase seen in Florida’s first surge last summer.

In Jacksonville, 4,328 cases were reported during the week ending Thursday. This is the largest weekly increase since mid-January, 19% above its July 2020 peak and as the city and country have emerged from the winter surge.

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From a perspective, Duval County has had more cases in the last seven days, despite being half as populous as Orange County (Orlando), Hillsborough County (Tampa), and Palm Beach County.

by Florida Health Department dataBaker County and Nassau County had the largest growth per 100,000 population in the state last week (see interactive map below). Bradford and Duval counties were the only other counties in the state with an infection rate of over 400 per 100,000.

Baker and Bradford counties have the lowest immunization rates in Florida (29% and 35%, respectively), while Nassau county’s 50% and Duval county’s 49% immunization rates are above the state average of 59%. Not much below.

Weekly cases per 100,000 population

Refers to a county of data

Florida Coronavirus: Cases and vaccination rates by county | Latest update

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The Nassau County Office for Emergency Management posted on Facebook on Saturday about the “significant increase.”

“The number of cases is rapidly approaching the maximum number seen before the vaccine became widely available in Florida,” the post read. The Ministry of Health is offering a free reservation-free vaccine this week..

“We were infected with the virus, but the virus did not infect us,” Dr. Todd Hasty, medical director at Seminole County, told sisters. WKMG-TV..

According to the State Health Department graph, cases of COVID-19 have increased in the last four weeks, but the number of vaccinations has decreased.

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The number of people infected with COVID-19 in Florida has fallen by about 80% from its peak in April.

“This isn’t going in the right direction. We’ve been aware of it for four weeks, and it’s just going that way,” Hasty said.

Vaccination and slowdowns in many communities (including most of northeastern Florida) have plagued health authorities as more than half of the population is still underpopulated, but the prevalent delta variants are spreading rapidly. I will. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that Delta accounted for 31.1% of infections last week and will soon become dominant.

We asked our people News4Nassau Facebook Group whether they return to wearing masks in public. Most of the answers were no.

One told us that he didn’t stop wearing the mask because of the risk.

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In Jacksonville this week, we spoke with Dr. Sunil Joshi of the Duval County Medical Society Foundation about what’s ahead.

“So there are concerns that we may start to retreat. If these numbers don’t start to decline again, we need to worry about hospitalizations here in northeastern Florida. So we have to do everything we can to reduce these numbers. “Joshi.

Currently, 3,200 people are hospitalized with COVID in Florida. This is a 73% increase from June 14th.

Early in the pandemic, state officials posted a dashboard tracking the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations and available beds.

Last month, the state stopped publishing data due to reduced hospitalizations.

Due to increased hospitalizations in Jacksonville last week, News4Jax asked state officials if they would like to republish this information, but did not respond.

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For some, looking at the data does not change the response to the increase in cases.

“I know it’s real. I know it’s there. But I don’t care personally. I’m pretty healthy. People need to be careful Yes, but I think it’s overstated, “said Genie Watts, a resident of northeastern Florida.

This week – Nassau County officials announced on Facebook about upcoming vaccination opportunities – reminding people that shots are widely available.

In Nassau County, only 50% of the population over the age of 12 is vaccinated at least once.

“Therefore, the virus affects a younger group of people who are not vaccinated, and this delta variant is much more contagious and leads to a much more serious illness, so more than 90% or 99%. Patients currently hospitalized with COVID have not been vaccinated, “said Joshi.

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For some, looking at the data does not change the response to the increase in cases.

“I’m actually going to take precautions to keep myself clean. As you know, I take my vitamins and exercise. It’s basically the whole period of my pandemic. That’s what we did, “said resident Nicole Blum.

We’ve also heard from News4Jax viewers who have sent their loved ones to the hospital for other reasons and faced long wait times.

One woman told Facebook that her mother went to the emergency room and waited for more than five hours.