Kelly Hayes
Hillsborough County is continuing to see a concerning number of COVID-19 cases as the winter holidays approach, leading the county to crack down on businesses.
The county saw 494 new cases from Sunday morning to Monday morning, according to the Florida Department of Health’s report released Monday. This comes after a peak seen last Wednesday, where the county reported 927 new cases, followed by 896 on Thursday and 712 on Friday.
In the last week, the county has reported a 28.6% increase in cases and in the last two weeks, a 40.6% increase.
A total of 64,967 Florida residents in the county have contracted the virus at some point. The county has also reported 986 deaths from the virus.
As the number of COVID-19 coronavirus cases continues to climb, Hillsborough County is amping up efforts to urge local businesses to comply with the county’s face coverings ordinance.
The county will be sending out the nearly three dozen code enforcement officers from the Hillsborough County Code Enforcement Department to begin visiting businesses throughout the week starting Monday. The officers will observe compliance, provide educational materials in English and Spanish and post signage or distribute masks if needed. The city of Tampa distributed about 500,000 masks to businesses last Wednesday alone.
The county’s ordinance requires business owners to do the following:
— Post signage on all public entrances that indicate face coverings must be worn inside.
— Require all employees to wear a face covering.
— Ask patrons not wearing face coverings to do so.
— Make regular reminder announcements to patrons and employees that face coverings must be worn if the business is equipped with a public announcement system.
The department has been responding to individual complaints about businesses and will continue to do so.
The rise in cases comes after Tampa Mayor Jane Castor hosted a startling conference last Wednesday to present the current state of COVID-19 in the Tampa Bay area where doctors called for more mitigation efforts in preparation for a grim third wave.
There is some more optimistic news, however. Monday morning, Tampa General Hospital received 20,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, which will go directly to frontline health care workers in the Tampa Bay area.
One comment
Maria
December 14, 2020 at 5:15 pm
And…more insanity from Calamity Jane Castor. Harassing and fining businesses at a time like this is just low…and really? Requiring announcements about the mask propaganda? They REALLY don’t want anyone to be able to not think about this crap for even a minute do they?
Enough is ENOUGH
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