Janelle Irwin Taylor
While new COVID-19 cases continue to flatten in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties, the death toll continues to reflect new spikes seen in recent weeks.
Pinellas County confirmed 17 new deaths Monday, bringing its death toll to 395. The latest reported COVID-19 deaths push the county’s mortality rate to 2.5%, significantly higher than both the state and neighboring Hillsborough County, which are at 1.4% and 1.1% respectively.
Hillsborough County confirmed a dozen new deaths Tuesday, bringing its death toll to 310.
Data also continues to show children and young adults facing the virus. Of Hillsborough County’s 340 new cases from Monday morning to Tuesday morning, 21% were among those aged 0-24. The county tallied 15 new cases among school aged kids 5-14, 7 who are 0-4 years old and 50 who were 15-24.
Pinellas County showed similar results with 20% of its 202 new cases among those 0-24. Most were between 15 and 24 with 21 reported cases. Those aged 5-14 accounted for 15 cases and kids four and under had four new cases.
The trends paint a troubling picture for students, families and teachers as schools prepare to open for in-person learning Aug. 24 in Hillsborough. Pinellas is expected to adopt the later start date as well. The school board will take a final vote Tuesday evening at a 5 p.m. meeting.
Hillsborough County is struggling with adult intensive care unit capacity with only 8.8% of the county’s beds available. Five of the counties 13 hospitals with ICU beds are at capacity. Another three have 5% or less capacity still available, according to the Agency for Health Care Administration.
Pinellas hospitals are faring better with more than 17% adult ICU capacity. The county still has 53 of its 254 beds available. Only one hospital, St. Pete General, is at full capacity.
There is good news on the community spread front. Hillsborough’s positivity rate was below 10% for the third straight day Monday, at 9.8%. Though the one-week rolling average remains above that threshold at 10.5%.
Pinellas County hasn’t had a positivity rate higher than 10% in two weeks. Its seven-day average is now at 6.6%, a slight uptick from Sunday due to an increase in positive tests Monday at 7.3%.
Hillsborough County now has 27,823 confirmed cases since the onset of the pandemic. Pinellas County has logged 15,541 cases.
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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.
