Duval County adds 28 COVID-19 deaths, second-highest daily toll; 103 deaths in Florida

Duval County recorded its second-highest single-day death count to date in the coronavirus pandemic in Sunday's daily report from the Florida Department of Health, as the death toll continued its climb in spite of recent gains in vaccination.

The health department recorded 28 more deaths in Duval County, raising the county's COVID-19 toll to 982. Only the report of Jan. 19, which added 40 deaths, showed a larger increase.

Because of delays in the state's process for tabulating deaths, however, it is not yet clear when the newly-reported deaths occurred. In many cases, deaths listed on state reports actually occurred multiple days or weeks earlier.

Putnam County listed two more COVID-19 deaths and Clay County one, an increase of 31 deaths across the six-county Northeast Florida area.

Duval County has now added 109 deaths over the past two weeks, and is on course to record its 1,000th death from the novel coronavirus as early as this week.

Across Florida, state health officials recorded 103 more COVID-19 deaths in Sunday's daily report from the coronavirus pandemic, raising the cumulative toll to 28,161.

In all, the health department has now recorded 1,777,983 cases of COVID-19 in Florida, an increase of 6,624 from Saturday. The day-to-day increase is the smallest since Feb. 1, although reports have usually included lower numbers on Sundays and Mondays.

The Duval County case count rose by 326, with 75 in St. Johns County, 65 in Clay County, 32 in Nassau County, 13 in Putnam County and 12 in Baker County.

For the second consecutive day, the Florida Department of Health positivity rate showed a marked increase of more than one percentage point, climbing to 9.85 percent for laboratory results received on Saturday. That figure still remains lower than its average level for most of January, however, when positivity was usually well above 10 percent.

The new-case positivity rate for Duval County increased to 7.82 percent, with comparable increases found in several nearby counties: 9.47 percent in Clay County, 12.12 percent in Nassau County, 8.30 percent in Putnam County and a modest rise to 9.09 percent in St. Johns County. Baker County, which reported a reduced sample size of slightly more than 100 tests, decreased to 10.38 percent.

Current hospitalizations across Florida, in a near-steady decline after peaking at more than 9,500 in January, showed little change in the latest statistics from the Agency for Health Care Administration. As of 3:30 p.m. Sunday, the agency reported 5,382 patients with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19 in Florida hospitals, an increase of five compared to Saturday.

Duval County's hospitalizations decreased by 24, from 348 to 324. Elsewhere in Northeast Florida, Baker County remained unchanged at 26; Clay County reported 48 patients, down by two; Nassau County eight, down by one; Putnam County 14, down by three; and St. Johns County 24, unchanged.

<style>.oembed-frame { width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0; border: 0; }</style>At a glance: Northeast Florida coronavirus casesInfogram

Here's a breakdown of the latest numbers in Florida:

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STATEWIDE

Cases: 1,777,983

Current hospitalizations: 5,382

Total hospitalizations: 74,412

Resident deaths: 27,696

AREA CASES

Duval: 84,201

Baker: 3,143

Clay: 15,853

Nassau: 7,249

Putnam: 5,618

St. Johns: 19,023

AREA DEATHS

Duval: 982

Baker: 54

Clay: 266

Nassau: 97

Putnam: 106

St. Johns: 175

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Duval County adds 28 COVID-19 deaths, second-highest daily toll; 103 deaths in Florida

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