Pinellas Covid-19 count jumps in October
Pinellas County reported 3,948 newly diagnosed Covid-19 cases in October.
That’s a higher number of new cases than in either August or in September and comes amid a rise in coronavirus cases around the United States.
Pinellas County has recorded a cumulative total of 26,214 Covid-19 cases from mid-March through Oct. 31, according to the Florida Department of Health.
Note: The state health department changed Covid case reporting in June, so that daily reports reflected totals from the prior day.
Note: The state health department changed Covid case reporting in June, so that daily reports reflected totals from the prior day.
There have been 823 deaths attributed to Covid-19 between mid-March and Oct. 31, the state health department said, including 68 deaths in October.
While the number of deaths in October was lower than in September, increases in hospitalizations and deaths are lagging measures and follow an increase in cases, Dr. Ulyee Choe, director of the Florida Department of Health-Pinellas County, told the Board of County Commissioners last month.
Nearly 33 percent of the hospital beds in Pinellas County were available as of Sunday, the state Agency for Health Care Administration reported, with wide ranges between hospitals in terms of bed availability. More than three-quarters of the beds at Palms of Pasadena Hospital were available, while no beds were available at Northside Hospital, AHCA said.
Pinellas County’s positivity rate, or the percent of people who take a Covid-19 test and test positive, stood at 5.29 percent for Saturday. It has averaged 4.8 percent over the past two weeks. That’s under the 5 percent rate 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 positivity rate averaged 4.19 percent in the prior two weeks.
There have been 2,716 cases of Covid-19 in Pinellas County for every 100,000 people, as of Sunday.
