July 28 update: 111 new positive tests, 5 new hospitalizations, no new deaths

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

According to the state dashboard, Alachua County has a cumulative total of 3,297 people with COVID-19-positive test results, an increase of 111 from yesterday on 867 test results with an official test positivity rate of 8.2%. The median age of positive tests (overall) in Alachua County is 31. 5 new hospitalizations were reported, and no new deaths were reported.

The new hospitalizations are a 43-year-old male who first tested positive on July 24, a 60-year-old female who first tested positive on July 25, and a 48-year-old female who first tested positive on July 27. The first two did not visit an emergency room and had no known contact with someone who was COVID-positive; the third one does not have contact tracing information.

Perhaps the best news is that visits to county emergency rooms with COVID-like illness continue to decrease from the July 5 peak:

Of the 2,167 people who tested positive between June 11 (the beginning of the “spike” in cases) and July 18 (cutting it off at July 18 allows a conservative 10 days from the positive test to hospitalization), only 45 (2%) have been hospitalized, and 9 have died (0.4%).

Around June 11, the number of new daily cases jumped about 10-fold, but then it stayed there. So we went from a 7-day average of 4-8 per day to 70-80 per day.

Of the 111 people whose tests came back yesterday, 10 were 65 or older (the chart shows 109 new cases and 9 over 65 because the state data doesn’t always match up):

A total of 20 deaths have been reported in the county. Nine of the deaths were reportedly from one long-term care facility, Parklands Care Center, and two were from other long-term care facilities. The 20 deaths were first reported as positive cases on April 9 (4), April 18 (2), April 20, April 21, April 23, May 10, May 12, May 24, June 23, June 29, July 1, July 6, July 7, July 8, July 9, and July 13.

134 people (total) have been hospitalized, an increase of 5 from yesterday. Twenty people have been added to the hospitalization total in the past week.

The website with current numbers of institutional care cases in Alachua County shows 127 cases, an increase of 8 from the previous report. The chart says, “The data is not cumulative but reflects the information available for current residents and staff with cases as of yesterday’s date.” (The top line shows totals for the state.)

The county report shows a cumulative total of 97 cases in long-term care (an increase of 5 from yesterday) and 25 cases in a correctional facility (no increase from yesterday).

Available hospital bed capacity in Alachua County is 13.49%, and ICU capacity is 9.42%.

North Florida Regional has 5 ICU beds available (10% of capacity), and Shands has 24 available (9% of capacity). ICU beds are used for all intensive-care patients, not just COVID patients.

The state has 441,977 cases (an increase of 9,230 from yesterday on 48,871 new test results) and 6,117 deaths (an increase of 186 from yesterday, 71 of which were from long-term care facilities).

Here are the dates of the new deaths:

7/27 – 19
7/26 – 22
7/25 – 35
7/24 – 28
7/23 – 13
7/22 – 6
7/21 – 9
7/20 – 10
7/19 – 9
7/18 – 5
7/17 – 7
7/16 – 2
7/15 – 5
7/14 – 5
7/13 – 2
7/12 – 2
7/10 – 1
7/8 – 4
7/5 – 1
6/19 – 1

Here is a graph of Florida fatalities by date through 7 days ago (although small numbers of deaths are being added to dates older than 7 days ago, recent dates will continue to have large increases for at least a week, so it’s cut off to remove large drops that will not hold up):

This graph smooths out the data by taking a 7-day moving average; it cuts off at July 20:

The state also publishes a chart of the percentage of new tests that are positive by day (this chart is for the whole state), and yesterday’s positive rate was 11.69%. (The state charts only count people who test positive for the first time, and they may assign results to a different date than the day the test result came back. Our calculations are just positives/total tests for new results.)

63,938 test results have come back so far in Alachua County (up 867 from yesterday). 5.15% of the local tests have come back positive so far, and 111 tests came back positive since yesterday’s report; the official positivity rate was 8.2%.

The University of Florida is reporting 54 positive tests out of 20,323 employees tested since May 6. This is a positive rate of 0.27%. 4 of the last 446 tests were positive, for a positive rate of 0.9%.

UF is also now reporting its testing of students, and it shows 163 positives out of 686 tests for a positive rate of 24%. 1 out of the last 30 results have come back positive, for a positive rate of 3.3%. UF has added information to this page, stating that these tests are the ones run at the UF Student Health Care Center on students who seek care for COVID-like symptoms.

According to the daily report, there are 2,654 cases in Gainesville, 203 in Alachua, 138 in Newberry, 64 in High Springs, 63 in Archer, 56 in Hawthorne, 26 in Micanopy, 10 in Santa Fe, 9 in Waldo, 7 in Tioga, 6 in LaCrosse, 2 in Earleton, 1 in Jonesville, and 1 in Evinston. 6 cases are listed in the city of “Missing” in Alachua County, 1 case is erroneously listed in “Wesley Chapel” in Alachua County, and 1 case is in “Unk” in Alachua County. Location data is not available for all cases.

The 7-day moving average of new cases is at 80.9 through yesterday’s cases. Here is the 7-day average of new cases for the past 14 days.

Testing information

Drive-Thru COVID-19 Testing
The Florida Department of Health in Alachua County (DOH-Alachua) is offering drive-thru COVID-19 testing on Wednesdays from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. and Fridays from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. DOH-Alachua is offering COVID-19 testing to Alachua County residents, regardless of symptoms. Residents who want a COVID-19 test are asked to call 352-334-8810 for an appointment. A referral from a doctor is not required. If your insurance covers this, it will be billed (no copay is required). If not, it is free.

COVID-19 Testing Results Phone Line
The Department of Health in Alachua County has set up a dedicated line for residents to call for COVID-19 test results. The phone number is 352-334-8828, and it is staffed Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m.