A Florida Department of Health report released Wednesday shows that 11.4 percent of children who have been tested in the tri-county area have been identified with the potentially deadly COVID-19 virus.
Statistics included in the report show that 1,259 children under the age of 18 in the local area have tested positive for the virus, which represents about 7.4 percent of the overall number of cases – 17,128 – reported in the tri-county area.
That number shows a slight increase over a similar report that was released last week showing 1,156 children suffering from the illness. That means that 103 more juveniles have been identified with eh virus in less than a week, Florida Department of Health statistics show.
Wednesday’s report shows that 614 minors in Marion County were reported as positive for COVID-19, along with 543 from Lake County and 102 from Sumter County. A total of 11,000 juveniles have been tested in the local area – 4,706 in Marion County, 5,613 in Lake County and 681 in Sumter County.
Sumter County has the highest positivity rate at 15 percent, followed by Marion County with 13 percent. Even though Lake County has tested the most juveniles in the local area, its positivity rate sits at just 9.7 percent, according to the Florida Department of Health report.
Across Florida, there have been 51,311 positive results among the 347,893 minors who have been tested. That amounts to a positivity rate of 14.7 percent across the state, which is higher than the 11.4 percent rate in the tri-county area.
There have been eight deaths among minors in Florida – two in the 5-10 age group, two in the 11-13 age group and four in the 14-17 age group. Also, 641 children have been hospitalized with the illness.
The breakdown by age of those minors reported with COVID-19 across Florida is:
- Under 1 years old – 2,697 cases (5 percent);
- 1-4 years old – 8,002 cases (16 percent);
- 5-10 years old – 13,685 cases (27 percent);
- 11-13 years old – 8,711 cases (17 percent); and
- 14-17 years old – 18,216 cases (36 percent).