Thrive
Pinellas County hits grim milestone on Covid-19 deaths
The death toll from Covid-19 in Pinellas County hit a sad benchmark over the weekend, when the county reported the 500th death from the virus since the pandemic began in early March.
That grim milestone came even as the number of new cases and the percent of people who are testing positive for Covid-19 in Pinellas appears to be declining.
The county hit 500 deaths on Sunday, an increase of 20 deaths since Friday. No additional deaths were reported Monday.
As of Monday, there has been a total of 17,941 confirmed cases, including 70 new cases confirmed on Sunday, according to the Florida Department of Health. It was the lowest daily increase since early June and the first time since June 13 that there were fewer than 100 new cases reported in a single day.
For the past seven days, the number of new cases has averaged 150 cases a day. The percent of people who test positive has averaged 5.26 percent over the past seven days, including a 3.5 percent positive test rate on Sunday.
Pinellas County is making some headway against the virus, but still has a long way to go in battling the pandemic, Dr. Ulyee Choe, director of the Florida Florida Department of Health Pinellas County, told county commissioners last week.
“If this was a football game, we are probably only in the second quarter,” Choe said. “We cannot be complacent. We cannot fall victim to Covid fatigue with the drawn out course of the disease. We need to keep it up and continue with the social distancing practices and wearing masks.”
Pinellas County has a large vulnerable population, with older people who may have underlying medical conditions. “As a result, sometimes there are disproportionate impacts as it relates to complications and deaths,” Choe said.
In Pinellas County, 88 percent of the people who have died from Covid-19 were 65 or over, according to the state health department in a chart showing total cases for Florida residents only, and not including people from out of state who got sick here. A 22-year-old man who died in June was the youngest Covid-19 victim in Pinellas County.
Source: Florida Department of Health
On Monday, the county opened a new Covid-19 testing site at Ruth Eckerd Hall, in a partnership between the county, the performing arts facility, BayCare Health System, the City of Clearwater and the Florida Department of Health Pinellas County.
The testing site at Ruth Eckerd Hall just opened. Testing will be available Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 7 to 10am. #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/dwU4gCKVzC
— BayCare (@BayCare) August 10, 2020
For the Ruth Eckerd Hall testing site, patients are encouraged to bring a referral from a medical provider, and those who do not will be screened based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines. Testing will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis.
