Pinellas County hits sad benchmark in pandemic
June 10, 2020 - Pinellas County has now recorded 100 deaths from COVID-19 since the outbreak of the pandemic. The 100th death was verified Wednesday and was that of a 90-year-old woman, according to a report from the Florida Department of Health. Seventy-five of the 100 Pinellas County deaths have involved residents or staff of long-term care facilities, the health department said. There are a total of 1,746 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Pinellas County as of Wednesday, an increase of 67 cases since Tuesday. Pinellas County has ramped up testing and the rate of people who have tested positive is at 3 percent. The "positivity rate" has been gradually increasing since early June, according to data from the Tampa Bay Partnership. Three Pinellas County ZIP codes, all in south St. Petersburg and with majority Black populations, have recorded the most new COVID-19 cases in the county each day for the past several days. The 33712 ZIP code now has more cases than any other ZIP code in Pinellas, with 114 cases as of Wednesday, an increase of 16 cases from Tuesday. The 33711 ZIP code added 10 cases over the past day and now has 71 cases, while the 33705 ZIP code has 95 cases as of Wednesday, up 7 cases from a day earlier. The St. Pete Catalyst's interactive map reports total cases by ZIP code, as reported by the Florida health department.