Florida continues to see COVID cases slip, deaths rise

The age group of Floridians with the highest rate of new infections remains those under age 12. (Marta Lavandier, Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Florida reported just over 100,000 new COVID-19 cases in the past week, a 33% decrease from the height of last month’s surge. The state has now had 3.4 million of its residents -- about 14% of Floridians -- diagnosed with coronavirus since early last year.

As with previous surges, when the number of new cases begins to drop, deaths attributed to the virus continued to rise for several weeks. The number of deaths the Department of Health’s report Friday was up 2,448 over the previous Friday -- the highest seven-day increase in Florida since the pandemic began.

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The 100,012 new cases from Sept. 3-9 is the state’s lowest weekly total since mid-July. Florida had three consecutive weeks with over 150,000 new cases back in August.

Duval County added 3,063 cases in seven days -- the smallest increase since the week ending July 8. And for the last week, Duval had the lowest rate of new cases per 100,000 people in the state.

The new case positivity rate of 13.5% is also the lowest since mid-July, according to the new Florida Department of Health data report released Friday evening.

The age group with the most new cases remains the under-12 population, which is currently ineligible to be vaccinated. FDOH says that 17,165 children under 12 became infected with COVID-19 in the past week.

State data shows that 69% of eligible Floridians (12 and older) have received at least one vaccine shot, a number public health officials are trying to raise. FDOH says that 349,845 doses were administered in the past week, which is the fewest shots administered in five weeks.