Janelle Irwin Taylor
After rebounding with all good news Wednesday, COVID-19 trends declined again in some metrics in Pinellas County Thursday, according Florida Department of Health data released Friday.
Pinellas County confirmed 183 new cases from Thursday morning to Friday morning, up from 156 confirmed in Thursday’s report.
The county also confirmed 12 new deaths Thursday, up from just two Wednesday. The county has now confirmed 481 COVID-19 deaths in the county, nearly 100 more than neighboring Hillsborough County, which has nearly double the number of total cases.
The county’s mortality rate remains well above the state at 2.8% compared to 1.5% statewide.
Hospital capacity also declined Thursday with just 18% of the county’s adult intensive care unit beds still available, down from 21% available Wednesday.
The positivity rate also ticked back up Thursday, but remains on a positive trajectory. Of tests returned Thursday, 4.5% were positive, up from 3.7% the day prior. But the county is inching toward St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Krseman’s 5% goal. That average is down to 5.8% from just over 6% in Thursday’s report.
Hillsborough County’s daly COVID-19 tally dropped in Friday’s report to 302 new cases, down from 366 reported Thursday. The county has now tallied 31,865 cases since the pandemic began.
After confirming just one new death in Thursday’s report, Friday’s report showed eight new deaths for a total of 386 since the pandemic began. But the county’s mortality rate is low compared to neighboring Pinellas County and the state, at just 1.2%.
Hospital capacity continues to improve, with 8% of the county’s adult ICU beds available, up from 7% the day prior and 3% earlier in the week. Hillsborough confirmed 17 new hospitalizations in Friday’s report, the same as the day before.
Hillsborough’s positivity rate ticked up slightly from Wednesday to Thursday to 7.4% from 6.9% Wednesday. Still, it’s the ninth day the county’s rate has been less than 10% and only two of the last 14 days have had rates higher than 10%, a sign that spread is slowing.
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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.
