About Town The Gainesville Sun
ABOUT TOWN
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Football
The Eastside High School football team will travel to Alachua to play Santa Fe High School in a spring football game.
Alachua County reports 29 COVID-19 cases Thursday
Editor’s note: The Sun now compiles weekly, rather than daily, updates on COVID-19 cases and vaccinations. Those updates will be online Thursday and in print Friday. Other important virus-related news, such as the authorization of new vaccines or use of vaccines for more groups, will be reported on immediately in separate stories.
Alachua County reported 29 new COVID-19 cases in Thursday’s state health department update, for a total of 24,795 cases. No new deaths have been reported so far in the month of May. The two-week positivity rate for new cases is 3.5%, similar to last week.
New data released by the state shows that since the beginning of April the last time the state provided the data COVID-19 variant cases have increased 172% in Alachua County. Cases also are on the rise in surrounding counties.
As of May 5, 90 variant cases have been identified in Alachua County, compared withjust 33 cases about a month earlier on April 8. The cases include at least 37 women and 43 men who range in age from 3 to 78.
Most of the affected people don’t have a travel history, but some had traveled around Florida and other southern states, as well as New York and Colorado.
Local hospitalizations with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19 are up this week compared with last, the most recent state data show.
Tuesday afternoon, 52 patients at Alachua County hospitals had a primary diagnosis of COVID-19 an increase since last week, according to data from Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration. Hospitals had about 16% available capacity, and overall bed availability has been stable for the past month.
The overall number of new cases has remained relatively low the past few weeks. Alachua County on Tuesday reported 27 new coronavirus cases, for a total of 24,744. The two-week positivity rate for new cases is 3.5%, similar to last week.