VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. – On Friday, officials in Volusia County met to provide updates on the county’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Florida health experts reported Friday that Volusia County had a total of 7,654 positive coronavirus cases. The new findings show an increase of 166 cases.
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“As a reminder, people are only counted once no matter how many times they are tested, so that number I gave you is the number of people, the number of individuals, because people are not counted more than once,” Holly Smith with the Florida Department of Health said.
The positivity rate in Volusia County is 7.3%. A large decrease from last week’s 9.4%.
Health officials agree the rate should be below 10% to show infections are decreasing.
“That’s a good drop that we’re happy to see, we are moving in the right direction. But the numbers are so much higher than we’d like to see and much higher than we were in mid-June,” Smith added.
In June, Volusia County’s positivity rate was only at 2.3%.
“In Volusia County, the number of admissions for COVID-19 and the number of emergency room visits across our hospital systems all are on the decline, 7% of Volusia’s cases are people who tested positive for COVID-19 and are hospitalized at some point, 2% of the people who test positive for COVID-19 in Volusia County are dying,” Smith explained.
To date, Volusia County has had 565 hospitalizations and 126 deaths.
“We can expect to see the number of deaths continue to grow as that number of total cases continues to grow as well,” Smith said.
Smith applauded the efforts by residents as everyone continues to adjust to a world consumed by a pandemic.
“The number of new cases every day, the number of new hospitalizations and a 14-day positivity rate, are all declining,” Smith said. “This decline is due to everyone’s efforts at social distancing mask-wearing and hand hygiene.”
Re-watch the news conference below.
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