Covid hospitalizations, positive test results jump in Pinellas County
December 9, 2020 - The Florida Department of Health reported 378 newly confirmed cases of Covid-19 and two additional deaths from the virus in Pinellas County and Wednesday. There is now a cumulative total of 35,883 cases of Covid-19 since March in Pinellas County and 941 people have died as result of the virus. The health department's latest report showed the positivity rate - or percent of people who took a Covid-19 test and received a positive result - was 9.2 percent on Tuesday. The positivity rate has averaged 6.3 percent over the past two weeks. The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration said 213 people were hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of Covid in Pinellas County hospitals as of Wednesday afternoon. That's up from 198 people hospitalized on Tuesday afternoon. While overall available hospital bed capacity in Pinellas County is 27 percent, three hospitals — St. Anthony's Hospital in St. Petersburg, Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater and Mease Countryside Hospital in Dunedin — have fewer than 10 percent of their beds available.