Welch asks top Pinellas health official on COVID-19: ‘Do you lose sleep at night?’

At the same time that Gov. Ron DeSantis was announcing a plan to reopen Florida’s public schools, the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners was getting an update on COVID-19.

As testing becomes more prevalent, the county recorded its largest one-day jump in cases on Thursday, with increases among younger people and communities of color — an indication of community spread, county officials said. There’s an outbreak at the county jail. Some hospital leaders are starting to be concerned about bed capacity, should the number of cases continue to rise.

What’s the plan when schools re-open, Commissioner Ken Welch asked county health officials, noting that two summer camps in St. Petersburg had to close temporarily because of cases of COVID-19.

Pinellas County has put together a school re-opening committee, said Dr. Ulyee Choe, director of the Florida Department of Health-Pinellas County said. The local task force will look at the state guidance and see what can be done to put those parameters in place on a local level, he said.

Dr. Ulyee Choe

“Do you lose sleep at night thinking about kids not showing symptoms, then going back home and transmitting to parents and grandparents?” Welch asked Choe.

“I can tell you I haven’t slept well over the last three months. That is my big concern,” Choe said. Older people are more vulnerable to severe complications, he said. “Whether it’s young adults or youth, the biggest concern isn’t about them. It’s taking it back home to a grandparent or a father or mother who may succumb to the illness. That’s the thing that worries me the most.”

The Pinellas County School Board is scheduled to meet Tuesday morning with a return to work update on the agenda.

“The schools concern me,” Welch told the St. Pete Catalyst in a interview. “At the end of the day you can’t open up the economy if parents have to stay home with children, and they’ve done that for a long time. I understand that driver. But at the same time, if kids can be  asymptomatic and you throw a couple hundred of them together during the day — and we’ve all been kids at school, you know that’s not the most sanitized environment — so there’s going to be spread. I think it’s inevitable.”

Disproportionate impact

Welch represents Pinellas County District 7, which takes in much of St. Petersburg, including three ZIP codes in south St. Petersburg that have seen the fastest rise in COVID-19 cases since just before the state moved into the second phase of DeSantis’ plan to reopen the economy. In those ZIP codes — 33711, 33705 and 3712 —the number of cases jumped by 889 percent, 770 percent, and 600 percent, respectively, between late April and Friday morning.

“I believe these numbers point to increased testing availability in South St. Pete, but there could be other factors at play here, including access to preventive measures such as masks,” said St. Petersburg City Council Vice Chair Gina Driscoll, whose districts includes parts of south St. Petersburg.

The 33712 ZIP code houses the Johnnie Ruth Clarke Center, where Community Health Centers of Pinellas has been conducting tests for several weeks. Better testing and more available testing is providing a better look at where the pandemic is in Pinellas County, Welch said.

All three ZIP codes have majority Black populations. In many parts of the United States, Black communities have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 and it’s apparent now that Pinellas County is no different than those other areas, Welch said.

As of Friday, 25 percent of the total cases in Pinellas County were among Black residents, according to the Florida Department of Health.

“African Americans and other minorities are probably represented in blue collar jobs that don’t have the opportunity to work from home. They’re more on the front lines and I think that’s why you’re seeing a higher rate in other urban areas and we are tracking up towards that,” Welch said.

Another factor is mixed messaging from Washington, D.C., on down about social distancing and wearing masks, he said.

“I think folks got the wrong message that reopening means business as usual. It doesn’t,” Welch said.

Broader outreach

While Pinellas County’s marketing department has done a great job on creating messages about social distancing and wearing masks, the outreach has to be broader, Welch said.

“I think we’ve reached everyone who already is tuned in to government communications, whether YouTube or watching our Zoom meetings. But there are a lot of folks who don’t subscribe to the Pinellas County YouTube channel,” he said. “We need different messengers to get that message out.”

He’d like to see messages from Tom Brady, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ new quarterback, or other professionals sports players from the Tampa Bay Rays or, Tampa Bay Lighting, as well as artists and musicians.

“We need to get different messengers and different modes of getting that message out, so folks understand we all are impacted by this. It’s not just a government recommendation but something we need to do for our families and folks we care about,” Welch said.

The messaging also should be regional, because the disease can travel across the bridges that separate Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, he said.

Pinellas County officials have said they are working on new messaging and will bring it back to the county commission once it is further refined.

Closer look: Numbers update

Florida began reporting COVID-19 case counts in early March.

It took 60 days for Pinellas County to reach a total of 1,000 cases. In the next 28 days, the count has nearly doubled, to 1,941 cases as of Friday morning.

The county has recorded 102 deaths as of Friday.