Janelle Irwin Taylor
As signs of hope emerge in the battle to tame the COVID-19 pandemic with a newly available vaccine, the Tampa Bay area continues to grapple with a slowly increasing outbreak in its two most populous counties.
Positive testing rates for new tests in Hillsborough and Pinellas County are still on the rise, with Florida Department of Health data released Tuesday showing Monday’s positivity rate at 9.22% in Hillsborough and 8.79% in Pinellas.
Both are single day increases, up from 8.71% in Hillsborough County on Sunday and 7.23% in Pinellas.
It is not uncommon for single day data — particularly data from Sunday to Monday — to show a temporary uptick. However, longer-term trends are showing a slowly increasing problem
Hillsborough County’s seven-day positivity rate is 8.79% while it’s 14-day average is 8.14%. That shows that week over week, more patients have been testing positive for the virus. The same is true in Pinellas County where the seven-day rate is now 7.45%, up from the 6.94% rate over the last 14-days.
Both counties also continue to see high numbers of new reported infections. Hillsborough County tallied 507 new cases from Monday morning to Tuesday morning and now has confirmed 66,548 cases since the onset of the virus in March. The county has regularly been tallying 500 or more new cases a day for the past week.
Pinellas has been regularly confirming about 300 new cases a day, with 339 cases confirmed from Monday morning to Tuesday morning. The county’s pandemic-wide total is now 38,457 cases.
Deaths are also on the rise with 10 deaths confirmed on Sunday and Monday. It’s difficult to tell how many deaths were tallied each day. The state’s Monday report showed 13 deaths confirmed on Sunday. But Tuesday’s report showed an amended tally with three fewer deaths than the day prior. The total death toll now sits at 996.
Pinellas County’s death toll is now at 957, up two over Monday’s report and six this week.
Outcomes in Pinellas have consistently been worse than in Hillsborough County. Hillsborough has had nearly 30,000 more cases than Pinellas, but only 39 more deaths. Pinellas County residents are also being hospitalized at a higher rate for the virus than their Hillsborough neighbors with 16 new hospitalizations confirmed Monday and 11 on Sunday.
A total of eight Hillsborough residents were hospitalized with the virus Monday and 12 on Sunday.
