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Pinellas County adds 11 Covid deaths as cases, hospitalizations climb

Margie Manning

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Image: Unsplash.

The Florida Department of Health has reported 11 additional deaths attributed to Covid-19 in Pinellas County.

The county’s death toll from the virus now stands at 849 people since the outbreak began in March.

There have been a total of 28,486 cases reported in Pinellas County, including 244 new cases reported since Wednesday. As of Thursday afternoon, 167 people were hospitalized in Pinellas County with a primary diagnosis of Covid, the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration reported.

There have been 863,619 total cases in Florida, with 17,585 total deaths statewide, and 3,062 people hospitalized as of Thursday. Florida is one of 42 states that a White House coronavirus task force includes in the “red zone” — meaning they had more than 100 new cases per 100,000 residents in the prior week, according to The Center for Public Integrity.

The state health department identifies people whose death is attributed to Covid-19 by age and gender. Some of the deaths the health department lists as newly identified actually occurred weeks or months earlier.

The Pinellas County victims who were identified in Thursday’s health department report and their dates of death are:

  • Oct. 25: female, 72
  • Oct. 25: female, 71
  • Oct. 19: female, 83
  • Oct. 16: male, 75
  • Oct. 13: male, 63
  • Oct. 13: male, 71
  • Oct. 12: male, 49
  • Oct. 9: female, 66
  • Oct. 2: male, 71
  • Sept. 14: male, 79
  • Sept. 1: female, 97

Pinellas County’s hospitals overall have 28 percent bed availability as of Thursday, with as many as 75 percent of the beds available at Palms of Pasadena Hospital and as few as 3.4 percent of the beds available at Morton Plant Hospital. Seventeen percent of the adult intensive care unit beds in Pinellas County hospitals are available overall, ranging from 45 percent of the ICU beds at St. Petersburg General Hospital to 4.6 percent of the ICU beds at Bayfront Health St. Petersburg.

The county’s positivity rate — or the percentage of people who take a Covid-19 test and test positive – was 7.37 percent on Wednesday and has averaged 6.45 percent over the past two weeks.

Five percent is the number that some public health officials say should be a threshold for potential restrictions, although state and federal reopening guidelines cite a 10 percent threshold for imposing restrictions. The St. Pete Catalyst has a daily update on total cases by ZIP code, which you can find here.

The Covid-19 testing sites at Tropicana Field and Ruth Eckerd Hall are expected to resume normal operations on Friday, following temporary closures due to Tropical Storm Eta.  The drive-through testing site at Tropicana Field, which normally operates Tuesday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., will resume those hours Friday and Saturday.  The Ruth Eckerd Hall site will resume normal operations on Friday as well from 7 to 10 a.m. Testing runs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. 

There are numerous private and public Covid-19 testing sites located throughout Pinellas County. For complete information, click here.

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2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. Avatar

    David Slossberg

    November 14, 2020at10:27 am

    Our county, congressman and governor and community leaders have done a pretty good job in opening our state so far. The finish line is in site. Beware of scare tactics from Microsoft and Facebook. Wear a mask, wash your hands and social distance.

  2. Avatar

    Dennis Doodan

    November 12, 2020at5:07 pm

    Predominantly Black Southern Pinellas county is the hardest hit area for Coronavirus cases. The poor and minority communities are affected worse.

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