With schools planning to reopen, Hillsborough, Pinellas both show COVID-19 spread among children

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With in-person schooling set to resume in less than a month, Hillsborough and Pinellas counties continue to show new cases of COVID-19 among school-aged children.

Of the 406 new cases Hillsborough County tallied Monday morning, covering test results returned Sunday, 38 were kids age 14 or under. Another 59 were between 15 and 24.

As of Monday morning, more than 1,200 school-aged children, those between five and 14, have contracted COVID-19 and nearly 5,000 between 15 and 24 have tested positive. It’s impossible to tell from Florida Department of Health data, but it’s likely a good portion of those cases are among high school students.

While no one in those age cohorts have died in Hillsborough County, 44 have required hospitalization.

Nearly a quarter of all of Hillsborough County’s COVID-19 cases are among those 24 and younger, though only 6% are 14 and younger.

The situation in Pinellas is not as dire among young people, but the numbers still thwart assumptions, particularly from Gov. Ron DeSantis, that children are not at risk or “vectors” of transmission.

Monday’s report included 11 cases in Pinellas County among children 14 and younger and 29 among those age 15-24. Since the pandemic began 724 children under 14 have been diagnosed and 2,293 ages 15-24. Those age groups account for 19% of all Pinellas County cases.

Hillsborough County has already approved pushing its first day of school back two weeks to Aug. 24 to allow more time to prepare classrooms for a safer reopening. Pinellas County is expected to approve the same this week.

Meanwhile, three additional COVID-19 patients died in Hillsborough County, according to the latest data Monday. The death toll in Hillsborough is now 298.

Pinellas County confirmed five additional deaths Monday, bringing its death toll to 378.

Adult intensive care unit capacity remains low in both counties with just over 13% of beds available in Hillsborough and less than 16% in Pinellas. That comes as 11 new patients were hospitalized in Hillsborough on Sunday and 15 in Pinellas.

There is some good news on positivity rates, however. Hillsborough County recorded its second day in a row with less than 10% positivity, at 9.8% Sunday, up from 9.5% Saturday. Still, both the one-week and two-week averages remain above that threshold at 10.9% and 12.8% respectively.

Pinellas County’s positivity rate ticked back up Sunday to 5.9% from 4.9% Saturday. The rate has been above 10% just one day in the past two weeks and, if the trend holds, Tuesday’s report will be the first to show two full weeks without a single positivity rate above 10% since mid-June.

As of Monday morning, Hillsborough County has tallied a total of 27,483 cases and Pinellas 15,339.

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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.