Alachua County infections from COVID-19 remain high in latest state report
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Community spread of COVID-19 remains high in Alachua County with 1,083 new cases reported to state health officials last week.
The most recent report by the Florida Department of Health also shows 25% of tests reported to the state were confirmed as positive infections. The number of new cases reflects a rate of 390 new infections for every 100,000 people in Alachua County.
Meanwhile the number of vaccinations against the disease, for people age 6 and older, dropped to 237.
Infections hit a low point for the year in April at 108 per week after hitting a pandemic high in January of 6,524, driven by the delta variant of SARS-COv-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Since the spring, case counts driven by the omicron subvariants have been rising again — though nowhere near the January spike.
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Florida COVID-19 deaths on the rise
Florida logged more COVID-19 deaths in the past two weeks than it has in months.
The state's death toll climbed by an average of 452 each week in the second half of July, Florida Department of Health figures show. That's the most since late March, when the giant wave of infections caused by the coronavirus' omicron variant was ebbing.
Unlike previous surges, this one has been vastly undercounted. The rise of at-home testing has helped lead to fewer tests being done by professionals, meaning that government agencies count fewer positive test results.
The state Health Department no longer provides county-level data for deaths from COVID-19 and reports infection data bi-weekly.
'Ninja' COVID variant leading to positivity rates over 20%
While the number of new COVID cases has averaged about 74,000 a week in Florida from June 17 through the week ended Friday, the percentage of tests coming back positive has grown from 17.4% back then to 20.7%, state health officials report.
BA.5 accounts for more than 80% of new cases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates.
The number of COVID-positive patients in hospitals statewide continues to hover above 4,000. Florida's patient count has not been lower than that since July 11.
Gov. Ron DeSantis said in January that his administration would differentiate between patients who go to the hospital because of the disease and those who test positive while hospitalized. That has yet to happen.
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Florida vaccine rates stagnant
Florida's vaccination count has barely budged since the state Health Department's previous biweekly COVID report. While BA.5 seems to evade some of the immunity from vaccinations, scientist emphasize that the vaccinations are a major deterrent of severe disease.
State health officials have logged 19,125 new vaccinations per week since July 15.
In total, more than 15.9 million people statewide have gotten at least one shot in their arms. That covers about 74% of Florida's population, including an estimated 1.5% of children younger than 5, state health officials say.
More than 7.8 million people statewide have gotten boosters.
COVID has infected almost 6.8 million Floridians and killed at least 77,565 since the pandemic began, the state Health Department reported Friday.
That death toll does not include more than 3,000 fatalities between March and October that physicians labeled as COVID deaths, but the state Health Department did not.
Chris Persaud, the Palm Beach Post's data reporter, contributed to this report. Email him at cpersaud@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: COVID-19 infections in Alachua County remain high, Florida reports
