Janelle Irwin Taylor
Hillsborough County recorded 589 new cases Saturday as the county continues to inch toward 30,000 new cases, a mark the county could pass as early as next Sunday at the current rate of new infections.
The county has now tallied 26,626 cases since the pandemic began in early March.
The positivity rate remains above 10%, but has leveled out in recent days around 11-12%, down from the upper teens the county had been recording earlier this month.
Friday’s positivity rate was 10.8% with the seven-day average at 11.7%.
There were no new deaths in the region, holding at 280. However, the county reported 65 new hospitalizations Friday. Adult intensive care unit capacity is below 15% with just 57 of 331 beds available, according to the Agency for Health Care Administration.
Adult ICU capacity in Pinellas County is less than 13% with just 37 of its 252 beds available. Pinellas added 33 new hospitalizations Friday.
Still, Pinellas County is still trending better than Hillsborough in new positive testing and the positive testing rate. Pinellas added 259 new cases from Friday to Saturday morning for a total of 14,985, positioning the county to almost certainly cross 15,000 cases Sunday.
The county confirmed five additional deaths Friday for a total of 372.
The positivity rate dropped to 5.7% Friday, a step closer to St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman’s 5% target. However the seven-day positivity rate remains at 7.5% and the 14-day average at 8%.
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Editor’s note on methodology: The Florida Department of Health releases new data every morning around 10:45 a.m. The total number reported in those daily reports include the previous day’s totals as well as the most up to date data as of about 9:30 a.m.
Florida Politics uses the report-over-report increase to document the number of new cases each day because it represents the most up-to-date data available. Some of the more specific data, including positivity rates and demographics, considers a different data set that includes only cases reported the previous day.
This is important to note because the DOH report lists different daily totals than our methodology to show day-over-day trends. Their numbers do not include non-residents who tested positive in the state and they only include single-day data, therefore some data in the DOH report may appear lower than what we report.
Our methodology was established based on careful consideration among our editorial staff to capture both the most recent and accurate trends.
