Janelle Irwin Taylor
For the third day in a row Hillsborough County has confirmed more than 1,000 new cases of COVID-19, rivaling numbers seen during the summer spike in July and into August.
From Thursday morning to Friday morning the county tallied 1,140 new cases of the virus, according to Florida Department of Health data released Friday. The county’s total caseload to date is now 84,714.
The continued spike in new cases is fueled by both more testing and on going elevated testing positivity rates. Hillsborough County received results for 7,608 tests Thursday, the third day testing returns went back to pre-New Year’s Day numbers. Of those tests, 12.8% were positive for COVID-19.
While that positivity rate is down from 14.38% Wednesday and 15.75% Tuesday, it shows a sustained elevation above 10%, the point at which wide community spread is expected, for nine straight days. In fact, the county’s positivity rate has been above 10% everyday except two in the past two weeks and the seven-day rolling positive average rate is 13.82%.
In addition, Hillsborough County six patients were hospitalized with the virus and the county confirmed eight deaths, bringing its overall death toll to 1,118.
That’s only one death more than has been reported in neighboring Pinellas County where only a fraction of the total cases have been identified.
Pinellas County confirmed three deaths Thursday bringing its death toll to 1,117. However, Pinellas also hospitalized 23 patients with the virus Thursday, a lagging indicator that shows more deaths may be on the horizon.
Pinellas continues to struggle with grim health outcomes compared to both neighboring Hillsborough and the state as a whole. About 2.2% of COVID-19 patients in Pinellas County have lost their lives while statewide the COVID-19 death rate is 1.6% and in Hillsborough it is just 1.3%.
And while Pinellas has about 60% the number of cases as Hillsborough, its trends too are troubling. Of the 6,604 tests received Thursday 10.39% came back positive. Like Hillsborough, Pinellas County’s positive test rate hasn’t been less than 10% since Dec. 29. The rate has only been below that threshold three times in the past two weeks and the seven-day rolling average is at 11.13%.
Pinellas County confirmed 773 new cases from Thursday morning to Friday morning, bringing its overall case load to 49,771.
