COVID cases top 120 per week

Posted on January 20, 2021

Taylor County appears to be enduring the worst month yet of the COVID-19 pandemic, posting weekly highs of positive cases one year after the global pandemic first began to impact the United States and 10 months since Florida implemented a two-week shut down to slow the spread.

Exactly one year after the first coronavirus case was reported in the United States (Jan. 20, 2020), Taylor County recorded an infection rate of 16% or higher for the fourth consecutive week, as the county’s total number of positive cases climbed by 457 over the course of the past month.

As of press time Tuesday, the Department of Health (DOH) reported Taylor County had a 16.76% infection rate the week of Jan. 10 (based on the number of those tested who received a positive result).

While the infection rate for the week of Jan. 17 has not yet been calculated, Taylor County has had 120 new coronavirus cases reported over the past seven days, bringing the total number of positive test results since the pandemic began to 2,280.

The week’s seven-day accumulation of 120 new cases was a slight decrease from the previous week’s 129 reported cases.

Taylor County began seeing the number of positive cases hit triple digits during the first week of January, more than doubling since the first week of December when 46 cases were reported.

Previously, Taylor County recorded infection rates of 17.6% on Dec. 20, 24.37% on Dec. 27, 22% on Jan. 3 and 16.76% on Jan. 10.

According to the DOH, approximately 10.3% of the county’s population has contracted the virus since April 2, 2020.

To date, 85 people (or four percent) have been hospitalized, and 30 people (or one percent) who previously tested positive have died.

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