2 Clay County women, Duval man among new deaths as Florida surpasses 1,000 COVID-19 fatalities

A Clay County long-term care facility on Friday disclosed an outbreak of novel coronavirus impacting over 30 residents and staff, a week after refusing to acknowledge the extent of its infections.

There are at least 31 confirmed cases of COVID-19 among residents and employees of Heartland Health Care Center in Orange Park, a 120-bed facility located on Wells Road, according to data released by the facility’s parent company, HCR ManorCare. It’s unclear if the deaths reported Friday by the Department of Health are connected to Heartland Health Care Center.

The death of a 67-year-old Duval County man was also reported Friday morning.

Florida now has 30,533 positive COVID-19 cases with 4,817 patients hospitalized by the sometimes deadly virus.

Northeast Florida’s 11 counties now have over 2,000 coronavirus cases with Duval County being the hardest hit (955).

Alachua County’s caseload increased by 13 in the last 24 hours and now sits at 244. Clay County has 266 cases, St. Johns has 203, followed by Flagler (106), Putnam (81), Nassau (49), Columbia (46), Bradford (42), Baker (20) and Union (4).

Tracking county-by-county cases, deaths

Among the new local cases are two Duval County children — a 1-year-old girl and an infant boy — a Putnam County 7-year-old girl and a 12-year-old St. Johns County boy.

Since early March, more than 318,800 tests have been administered in Florida, according to the health department. The vast majority (89.9%) of those results have come back negative. The state has not reported a number of people who have recovered from the disease.