COVID-19 stabilizing in Hillsborough, Pinellas counties, but July was a brutal month

Hillsborough County tallied 348 new COVID-19 cases Monday, a number relatively consistent with recent trends despite testing site closures through the weekend that slowed down new case counts in other areas.

Pinellas County, meanwhile, saw a significant drop off in cases with just 112 reported in the Florida Department of Health’s Monday report covering new cases confirmed between Sunday morning and Monday morning.

Because testing turnaround tends to lag with high demand, the results of some testing site closures due to the threat of Hurricane Isaias over the weekend may not be fully seen until mid-week.

Deaths in both counties were also down in Monday’s report, with just one new confirmed death in Hillsborough and three in Pinellas. A total of 348 residents have died from COVID-19 in Hillsborough and 442 in Pinellas.

Hospitalizations and adult intensive care unity capacity are also on the rise in both Tampa Bay counties with eight new hospitalizations in Hillsborough Sunday and 18 in Pinellas County. While 18 seems like a high number, it’s low compared to the 30-40 new hospitalizations reported on several days in the past few weeks.

Hillsborough County’s adult ICU capacity is back above 10% Monday with 39 of the county’s 338 beds available. Pinellas County has 14% capacity with 42 of 252 beds.

Positivity rates also show signs of hope in the region with Hillsborough County at less than 10% for the fifth day in a row. The seven-day average is at 9.8%, the third day that rolling average has dropped below 10%.

Pinellas County has been below 10% for about three weeks now. The current seven day average is 7%, just 2% shy of St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman’s goal.

With a new month upon us, month over month tallies show just how challenging July was. Of the 29,589 cases confirmed as of Aug. 1 in Hillsborough County, 61%, 18,124, were confirmed in July.

Pinellas County had 16,604 cases as of Aug. 1. Of those, 59%, 9,743, were confirmed in July.

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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.