Duval County’s COVID testing positivity rate fell to 10.6% last week, the lowest rate in almost three months. The county-wide positivity rate is inching closer to the 8% threshold set by the Duval County School Board for lifting the district’s student mask mandate.
The latest weekly COVID data report from Florida’s Department of Health also shows the fewest number of people got vaccinated last week in Duval County since mid-July — only about 5,000 people. Sixty-one percent of residents 12 and older are now vaccinated county-wide.
Though the vaccination rate is stagnating, Baptist Health on Monday stopped reporting daily COVID patient counts, as the hospital chain said it is seeing a steady decline in patients. As of Friday, 174 adults were hospitalized with COVID across Baptist’s five hospitals, along with nine kids with COVID at Wolfson Children’s Hospital.
With the consistent & steady decline in the COVID-19 surge, we will end daily updates. Thank you to those who helped in our efforts to emphasize the importance of vaccinations.
— Baptist Health (@BaptistHealthJx) September 17, 2021
COVID-19 update for patients across our 5-hospital health system: pic.twitter.com/Hdbly5hlZP
Miami-Dade County has the highest vaccination rate in the state, 90 percent, along with the lowest new case positivity rate last week, less than 6 percent.
Contact Claire Heddles at cheddles@wjct.org, (904) 250 - 0926, or on Twitter at @claireheddles.