As Florida’s COVID-19 cases surge past the 11,000 mark, Alachua County’s cases also continue to rise.
A total of 116 cases were confirmed in Alachua County this evening -- six more than last night, according to the Florida Department of Health’s dashboard. The latest cases are all Florida residents:
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28-year-old male
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26-year-old female
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39-year-old female
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56-year-old female
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36-year-old male
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72-year-old female
Sixteen hospitalizations were reported in the county under the ‘Florida Cases’ tab on dashboard, but only 15 are shown under the ‘Cases by County’ tab. The Alligator reached out to the Florida Department of Health to ask for clarification on this discrepancy but has received no response as of this evening.
UF Health Shands has a total of nine patients hospitalized with COVID-19, UF Health spokesperson Bill Levesque confirmed in an email this afternoon. He couldn’t confirm the conditions of the patients, citing privacy laws.
The majority of Alachua County’s cases reside in Gainesville, which has a total of 89 as of this evening, according to the daily report. Meanwhile, Alachua has eight cases, Newberry has four and High Springs, Micanopy, Tioga and Hawthorne each have two. No new cases were reported at UF today.
More than 1,000 new cases were reported across Florida today, bringing the total to 11,545, according to the daily report. Twenty-five new deaths were also reported in the state, bringing the total to 195.
Despite daily updates on cases from the state department of health, there’s often a lag time for test results. Paul Myers, administrator for the county department of health, said the turnaround for these results varies by lab from a few hours up to 10 days.
According to UF Health spokesperson Ken Garcia, COVID-19 tests are being run internally at UF Health for patients who meet the following testing criteria set by the CDC:
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If you have traveled from any country listed on the CDC Level 3 Travel Health Notice
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If you have had close contact with a person known to have COVID-19 or are undergoing evaluation for COVID-19 within the past 14 days
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Anyone experiencing symptoms who has been on a cruise in the last 14 days
While turnaround at commercial labs can take up to five days, this in-house testing has allowed UF Health physicians and patients the potential to receive test results within 24 hours, Garcia wrote in an email to The Alligator last week.
However, Garcia noted that this is dependent upon the continuing availability of supplies necessary to run the tests.
Contact Alex DeLuca at adeluca@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter @AlexLDeluca.
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
