Volusia County COVID-19 Trends

DeLand, FL – The number of new cases of COVID-19 and the positivity rate are both in a plateau stage. That’s according to Dr. Randa Matusiak, Special Projects Coordinator for the Volusia County Department of Public Protection. Matusiak says if you look at the trend, we’re averaging about 50 cases per day.  "We’ve been doing that since about the middle of September. I don’t know if I would call it a continued steady decline. We’re kind of hovering right there at that 50 new cases." The positivity rate is also an important number to look at. According to Matusiak, that rate has held steady over the past few weeks. "We had, in the last week, it was five percent positivity rate and then the week before last was five percent positivity rate and then this prior week was a little bit less than that at about 4.8 percent for the week of 9-27." As of Tuesday, October 6, Matusiak said there were 59 hospitalizations due to COVID-19. We’re hovering at about 33 percent availability of hospital beds and ICU beds. Matusiak also shared results from the COVID-19 testing being done in the Hester Building at the Volusia County Fairgrounds. She said as of Monday, October 5,  there have been 5,629 tests conducted. COVID-19 testing continues through next Thursday, October 15.  It’s viral testing only. Testing for antibodies is no longer taking place at the Fairgrounds. You also no longer need to make an appointment ahead of time. Only walk-up testing is taking place every day of the week from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. at the Hester Building.