JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Florida’s daily recent increases of COVID-19 cases is not as dire as the state’s peak in the summer or many parts of the country are seeing now, but our numbers are trending higher.
The Department of Health added 7,783 new cases of the virus Wednesday -- the second-highest increase of the last two weeks and raises our two-week daily average above 6,000. In early October, when the daily for new cases was about 2,200. In mid-July, the state reported reached an average above 11,500 daily cases.
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The current seven-day average includes more than 10,000 new cases reported on Sunday, but officials have pointed to a large dump of test results that day-- more than 146,000 -- as an explanation for the dramatic rise in positive cases. Nevertheless, Florida’s numbers have been trending upward over the past 45 days.
Area counties are also seeing more cases per day than they did last month. Jacksonville added 253 cases Wednesday, slightly above its average of 225 so far this month.
Florida and Duval County daily increases since June 1
Since the pandemic reached Florida in March, a total of 904,248 people have contracted the virus in Florida, according to state records.
The state added 24 deaths on Tuesday -- six of those in Jacksonville, three in Alachua and one each in Bradford and Columbia counties. Since the start of the pandemic, 17,949 people in Florida have died from the virus.
The number of patients being treated for COVID-19 in Florida hospitals has also risen in recent weeks. The online census of Florida hospitals showed numbers hovering between 2,000 and 2,200 for most of last month, but on Wednesday, the state reported there were 3,352 coronavirus patients in hospitals.