A Florida Department of Health report released Monday shows that 11.6 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 1,139 children under the age of 18 in the local area have tested positive for the virus, which represents about 7.2 percent of the overall number of cases – 15,853 – reported in the tri-county area.
As of Monday, 553 minors in Marion County were being reported as positive for COVID-19, along with 500 from Lake County and 86 from Sumter County. A total of 9,790 juveniles have been tested in the local area – 4,079 in Marion County, 5,105 in Lake County and 606 in Sumter County.
Sumter County has the highest positivity rate at 14.2 percent, followed by Marion County with 13.6 percent. Even though Lake County has tested the most juveniles in the local area, its positivity rate sits at just 9.8 percent, according to the Florida Department of Health report.
Across Florida, there have been 48,464 positive results among the 321,640 minors who have been tested. That amounts to a positivity rate of 15.1 percent across the state, which is lower than the 11.6 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, 600 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 – 2,596 cases (5 percent);
- 1-4 years old – 7,578 cases (16 percent);
- 5-10 years old – 12,862 cases (27 percent);
- 11-13 years old – 8,203 cases (17 percent); and
- 14-17 years old – 17,225 cases (36 percent).
