How many cases of COVID-19 are in your zip code?

Jacksonville, Florida. 1 in 16 people in Florida have tested positive for Coronavirus this year. But these cases were not distributed evenly across the state. We know that long-term care facilities and prisons have been badly damaged. And while southern Florida and metropolitan areas showed the most cases early in the epidemic, the number of cases has been somewhat similar across most of the state.

The Florida Department of Health has begun including a zip code breakdown on its site COVID-19 dashboard Months ago, but with cases exceeding early expectations, the vast majority of the map is the same color: red.

News4Jax has just updated our view of where COVID has hit the hardest in Greater Jacksonville, finding the most cases in northeast Jacksonville, South Side, East Arlington, Jacksonville Beach, and parts of Westside – all with infection rates above or above the state average. The highest concentration of cases was 32,202, which has fewer residents than many zip codes, but includes Duval County Jail and Block J of the TIAA Bank Field, where the largest COVID-19 testing site is located in the city in the first several months of the pandemic. (Cases are sometimes listed initially in the postal code as the person has been tested and some have never been updated.)

In Clay County, while postal codes that include Orange Park, Fleming Island, and Middleburg have the most cases, Southeast Clay, including Green Cove Springs, has the most cases per capita.

St. Johns County, the northwest, Ponte Vedra beach and the southern St. Augustine area have the highest number of cases, but the infection rate in all 11 zip codes in the county is below the state average.

The Nassau County area that includes Fernandina Beach had the most cases of COVID-19 in the county, but Zip Code including Yulee had a higher infection rate – 1 out of 16 – matching the state average.

With a relatively small population, Baker County is an example of how a large prison distorts the statistics. One in seven people in 3,2087 have tested positive for the virus, but that zip code also includes the Baker Correctional Facility, where 568 cases were counted this year – based on the latest release of Corrections Department data earlier this month. This does not mean that the rest of the county has a low infection rate. The 32063 district that includes McLean – and many long-term care facilities – includes 1 in 13 people counted among the 1.2 million Florida residents who have contracted the virus.