Editor's Note: If you think you might have COVID-19, contact the Alachua County Health Department at (352) 334-7900 or the Student Health Care Center at (352) 392-1161. The Alligator doesn’t have information about the names of these county and UF patients due to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, more commonly known as HIPAA, which protects patient privacy.
While the number of positive COVID-19 cases in Alachua County has climbed to 60, UF now has 24 cases as of this morning.
UF’s four new cases include:
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An undergraduate student and student assistant in the College of of Agriculture and Life Sciences living in off-campus housing
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An undergraduate student in the College of Business living in off-campus housing
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A graduate student and assistant in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences living in off-campus housing
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An employee who works in the Transportation and Parking Services office building
At around noon, the Florida Department of Health’s dashboard showed that Alachua County had 57 total positive cases. As of this evening, the dashboard confirmed three more, bringing the total to 60.
Today’s 11 a.m. report was not released until after 6 p.m. When the case-by-case breakdown was sent this evening, it showed four new cases in Alachua County: a 20-year-old male, 32-year-old female, 69-year-old male and a male whose age was not listed.
A total of 2,765 Florida residents were confirmed positive for the virus this morning, according to the dashboard. As of this evening, the dashboard showed the total had jumped to 3,198 and that 17 new deaths had been reported.
As of yesterday, the dashboard no longer shows the total Florida case numbers — it just displays Florida resident cases.
City and county testing expansion
Gainesville and Alachua County announced this afternoon that they’ve expanded their COVID-19 testing abilities to include a drive-thru testing site.
According to a news release from the city, residents can get tested for the virus at this site after going through a screening process and receiving a testing order. While the release doesn’t give details of when this new testing location will be available to the public or where it will be, it says the site will limit contact between residents while also protecting healthcare professionals.
City spokesperson Rossana Passaniti wrote in an email that the testing facility location information was omitted intentionally from the release, as “patients will obtain testing facility information with the order from a physician.”
To date, the state department of health is only offering testing by appointment to patients who have been referred by a physician, according to the release.
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
