Three More Covid Deaths Bring Flagler’s Total to 29 Even as New Infection Numbers Stabilize

A 48-year-old black man was confirmed to have died on Sunday, Oct. 4, making him the county’s youngest victim of the disease to date. The next-youngest was 50.

An 82-year-old white man who died on Aug. 5 was added to Flagler’s tally only on Monday because he had died in another county, “and we were not notified till now,” Snyder said. “This will happen infrequently and we pick up the death through Florida’s Vital Statistics data base.”

A 75-year-old white woman was confirmed to have died on Sept. 26.

The continuing death toll is a reflection of covid’s unavoidable reality: while the number of new infections in the state and in Flagler have fallen and stabilized since the summer’s peak, the numbers have done so at a relatively high level, with between 2,000 and 3,000 new daily infections in the state and between 50 and 80 a week in the county. The disease’s unrelenting probabilities means a portion of those infected end up hospitalized, and a portion don’t survive.

For the week ending Saturday Flagler recorded 58 new infections, the lowest weekly total since late June, when the summer surge was beginning. The number is relatively lower–it allows local officials to boast that Flagler has the lowest per-capita rate of infections–but remains high in the absolute.

Specifically, Flagler has a rate of 56 cases per 100,000 population in the last seven days, giving it the 14th-lowest rate among 67 Florida counties in the last seven days. But if it were compared to the rest of the world, Flagler still has a higher rate per 100,000 than in three-quarters of the world’s countries in the last seven days.




In an appearance before the County Commission Monday, Snyder and Emergency Management Chief Jonathan Lord said that cumulative numbers since the beginning of the pandemic in March give Flagler County the lowest or close to lowest-rate of infections and deaths, compared to other counties in the state.

“Not sure how much of that is luck versus our particular circumstances versus our public health efforts,” Dr. Stephen Bickel, the medical director at the Flagler and Volusia counties who has played a large role in planning the county’s response to the pandemic, wrote in an email. “And also like Bob stated, it’s a somber set of statistics to be feeling relatively good about, but I’d rather we were in 2nd place in Florida versus 2nd to last. But we have to keep in mind that Florida is one of the worst states in arguably the worst developed country in the world in terms of our handling of Covid-19! What is that phrase, ‘A giant among midgets!’ or something like that.”

Nevertheless, some of the county commissioners felt compelled to greet news of the numbers with boastful back-patting, even as the death toll continues to climb.

Testing has also fallen significantly since the summer peak.

Statewide, Florida has confirmed 14,650 covid-related deaths so far. The state health department’s dashboard continues to present numbers in misleading ways, showing a graph that includes only those deaths confirmed on the date shown, as opposed to cumulative deaths that are confirmed over time, thus not reflecting the very long lag between many of those confirmations: medical examiner offices can take weeks to confirm a covid death, and as the latest death tally in Flagler indicates, some of the victims who die out of county may not be counted for long periods.

Nationally, some 200,000 people have died. Deaths decreased this week compared to the previous week, with 639 deaths confirmed in the last seven days, down from 736 the week before. The numbers are not final: as in Florida, there is a lag between the numbers announced and the actual number when all factors have been figured in.