Florida surpasses 30,000 COVID-19 deaths

Department of Health adds 224 deaths in state, 20 in Northeast Florida

(Jae C. Hong, Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Just over 11 months after the first deaths in Florida attributed to COVID-19, the Department of Health reported Friday that the state has surpassed 30,000 deaths attributed to the virus.

The state has added 6,683 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, reaching 1,856,427 cases since the outbreak reached the state last March. According to the FDOH data, 29,692 residents and at least 522 more non-residents have died in Florida from COVID-19, bringing the combined total to 30,214.

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There were 12 additional deaths in Duval County reported on Friday, bringing the total to 1,075. There were three more deaths in Alachua, two in Clay and St. Johns Counties and one additional death in Putnam County.

The statewide positivity rate from Thursday’s testing was 5.85% -- down from 6.39% the day before. There have been at least 77,408 resident hospitalizations attributed to the virus in the state. On Friday afternoon, 4,298 people in the state are currently hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19.

The state has now verified 433 cases of the B.1.1.7 variant that first emerged in the United Kingdom. That’s more than double the number for any state in the country, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. Florida also reported its first confirmed case of the P.1 COVID variant that believed to have come from Brazil.

As of Friday morning, at least 2,617,774 people have been vaccinated in Florida, with 1,294,225 people in the state getting both shots that are needed.