Kelly Hayes
Pinellas County’s positivity rate dropped to 5% Wednesday, a far cry from the double digits it had been seeing since the winter holidays. Still, it’s a number St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman has cautioned is a sign of too much community spread.
The county reported a 5.13% rate of positive tests on Wednesday, down from Tuesday’s 7.75% and Monday’s 8.49%. Even more so, it shows a significant drop from last week, where the county’s positivity rate danced around 10-12%.
The county reported 385 new cases on Wednesday, according to Florida Department of Health data released Thursday. It also recorded eight new deaths and 26 hospitalizations, and has seen 52,739 cases since the start of the pandemic.
Despite the gradual trend downward in Pinellas, Hillsborough County continues to report a rise in cases, after seeing a dip from last week’s peak.
On Wednesday, the county confirmed 946 new cases, inching closer to 1,000 daily cases — a marker that plagued county reports for five days last week. It’s also showing a trend upward since the start of the week, where daily new cases sat around 700.
Hillsborough also saw eight additional hospitalizations and 12 new deaths reported on Wednesday. Since the start of the pandemic, the county has confirmed 89,989 cases of COVID-19, and tallied 1,165 deaths.
Hillsborough’s positivity rate is down since the previous daily report.
On Wednesday, the county reported a 9.59% positivity rate, under the 10% marker of mass spread. Tuesday, the county’s rate stood at 11.35%. Last week, the positivity rate danced around 12-13%, with a peak last Tuesday at 15.77%.
The counties opened up vaccinations to those 65 and older last week.
So far, Pinellas County has vaccinated 33,686 and Hillsborough 35,916, according to the latest state vaccination report.
