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Escambia and Santa Rosa counties saw seven new coronavirus cases throughout the day Thursday, including an infant boy under the age of 1.
The Santa Rosa child is the youngest person in Florida with the coronavirus. There also is a 2-year-old Santa Rosa boy whose case was reported on Wednesday. The infant was enrolled at the Seaside Child Development Center in Gulf Breeze. Staff immediately contacted the families who use the day care to alert them and to direct them to resources on what steps to take next.
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That brings the total to 20 cases in Escambia County and 12 in Santa Rosa County.
There are 2,484 cases in Florida as of Thursday evening.
Who are new?
The new cases consist of three in Pensacola, two new cases in Gulf Breeze, and one new case in Navarre and one new case in Milton.
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Escambia County’s total includes 14 Pensacola residents and six Cantonment residents.
In Santa Rosa County, there are seven Navarre cases, three Gulf Breeze cases and two Milton cases.
The Florida Department of Health began giving city by city breakdown of coronavirus cases earlier this week to shed new light on where the pandemic is spreading throughout Northwest Florida.
Testing
The Florida Department of Health is releasing updated patient totals daily, and officials have said they expect to see numbers of confirmed cases climb as COVID-19 testing becomes more widely available.
As of Thursday evening, the health department reports there have been 281 people tested in Escambia County, with 7% of them returning positive results. There have been 135 people tested in Santa Rosa County, with 9% of them returning positive results.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosas Press Gazette: Coronavirus: Santa Rosa County infant under 1 is youngest case of coronavirus in Florida