COVID-19 cases among local juveniles are continuing to rise at a rapid clip.
As of Monday, there were 563 case in the tri-county area involving children under the age of 18, according to statistics provided by the Florida Department of Health. On July 19, the local area was reporting 374 cases. That number stood at 239 cases on July 12 and a month ago there were just 47 minors suffering from the potentially deadly virus in the local area.
That current number represents about 6.4 percent of the COVID-19 cases currently being reported in Sumter, Lake and Marion counties. But it also shows an increase of 189 juvenile patients in a week’s time and 485 more cases in a month.
So far, 294 minors in Lake County have tested positive, while 243 have been identified in Marion County and 26 have been reported in Sumter County. A total of 6,091 juveniles have been tested in the tri-county area – 3,353 in Lake County, 2,372 in Marion County and 366 in Sumter County.
Across Florida, there have been 31,150 positive results among the 215,729 minors who have been tested. That amounts to a positivity rate of 14.4 percent across the state, which compares to 9.2 percent locally.
There have been five deaths among children in Florida. One was in the 5-10 age bracket, while two each were in the 11-13 and 14-17 age brackets. Also, 309 minors have been hospitalized with the deadly virus.
The breakdown by age of those minors reported with COVID-19 across Florida is:
- Under 1 years old – 1,817 cases (6 percent);
- 1-4 years old – 4,993 cases (16 percent);
- 5-10 years old – 8,108 cases (26 percent);
- 11-13 years old – 5,122 cases (16 percent); and
- 14-17 years old – 11,110 cases (36 percent).