Pinellas County expands Pinellas Cares, redoubles efforts on Covid education, prevention

Pinellas County is planning an outreach campaign after Thanksgiving to bolster Covid-19 education and prevention.

The county also will expand the Pinellas Cares program to provide additional funding for some arts and culture organizations that have been financially impacted by Covid-19.

Both moves come as Covid-19 deaths and cases are rising and hospital beds are increasingly occupied by patients with the virus, the county’s top public health official told the Board of County Commissioners Tuesday.

Case counts have averaged 202 new cases a day over the past seven days, compared to average case counts in the 70s in September, said Dr. Ulyee Choe, director of the Florida Department of Health-Pinellas County.

“Our deaths are increasing. We are at 859 as of this morning, so that is creeping up as well. Year to date all-cause deaths is 9 percent higher than the average over the last three years,” Choe said. “Regarding the health care systems, the capacity currently is doing well, but we have seen an increase in Covid occupied beds and those in ICU beds.”

Commissioners voted unanimously to keep a state of local emergency in place through Nov. 27. The extension keeps in effect a county ordinance requiring face coverings within public places and restaurants and bars to serve only patrons who are seated.

“We know people are getting tired of the restrictions and we’re starting to let our guard down. We see that in our restaurants and our bars. They’re becoming more compact and a lot of people not wearing masks, both servers and customers,” said Barry Burton, county administrator. “We do have restrictions in place. We need to redouble our effort to talk to people and educate them.”

He said he would return to the commission after Thanksgiving with a plan for an outreach campaign to talk to restaurants, bars and other businesses, such as gyms.

“It doesn’t matter what kind of business it is. When you get large groups of people you increase the risk. So we really need to do a better outreach campaign and remind people. We also need to enforce it,” Burton said. “For those that believe that governor lifted all the restrictions that simply isn’t true. On the east coast, Broward and Miami counties have capacity restrictions. We’re not proposing to go to that, but he left that in place, the ability to go down to 50 percent capacity.”

Business owners also can enforce their own requirements for customers to wear masks on premise, Burton said.

“We’re not looking at enforcement. We’re looking at it as education and ‘we’re all in this together.’ But we have to keep our eye on the ball and we need to redouble our efforts to make sure we are safe,” Burton said.

Choe said he was encouraged by announcements about potential Covid-19 vaccines, although he cautioned that limited supplies, at least initially, will mean priorities will be established in who is first in line to get the vaccine.

“There is a light at the  end of the tunnel, but until that time we need to be patient. We need to stay the course and continue preventive measures such as social distancing and wearing masks,” Choe said.

“The light at the end of the tunnel right now is a train coming,” said Commission Chair Pat Gerard, one of the several commissioners who said the county had to let residents and businesses know the county is serious about prevention efforts. “If it continues to go up in the way it has in the last month, we’re going to have big trouble. It’s great that a vaccine is coming, but it’s not here yet and you’re not going to get it for several months. So we need to keep up the pressure.”

CARES deadline

Pinellas CARES, the county-wide program to provide financial help to individuals and families, businesses and nonprofit organizations, will be expanded to offer funding for large museums and attractions that initially did not qualify for the program, Burton said.

There also will be expanded local government expense reimbursement.

The county received $170.1 million in funding in April from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, the CARES Act. Since then, it has approved 15,704 applications for individual and family assistance for help with rent and utility payments, and 4,648 applications from businesses for grants, a presentation to the county commission said. In addition, 44 applications from nonprofits have been approved, and 529 applications from childcare providers have been approved. The county also is using CARES funding for workforce re-employment and training and for personal protective equipment, testing, contact tracing and vaccine setup.

The projected cost of those approved applications and local government uses will total $121.8 million by Dec. 30, when the county has to use the money or return it to the federal government under current rules. In order to spend the full amount, commissioners agreed to add $700,000 in additional nonprofit funding, and $32.2 million for local government mitigation and response.

An audit of the Pinellas CARES Small Business Grant program found the program was very effective overall, according to a report presented to the commission on Tuesday.

The audit, conducted by the division of inspector general in the county clerk’s office, looked at operations of the program between May 4 and Aug. 31. There were adequate controls in place to review and approve the applications as well as to perform a final review before the money was disbursed, the Oct. 7 report said. A handful of cases where ineligible businesses got money were detailed in the audit, including a discussion of how those instances were resolved. No confirmed fraudulent activity was found, the audit said.