Florida passed the grim milestone of over 10,000 coronavirus deaths, according to the Florida Department of Health.
Wednesday’s death toll added 174 deaths, bringing the complete total to 10,067.
Additionally, 4,115 new COVID-19 cases were added, which boosts Florida’s total case numbers to 584,047.
Half of all the deaths recorded in Florida have been in the last month alone, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Leading the Tampa Bay area with the most deaths added Wednesday was Hillsborough with 18. Pinellas added 12 one-day coronavirus deaths; Hernando added six coronavirus deaths; Pasco added three and Polk and Citrus each added two coronavirus deaths bringing the total of Tampa Bay deaths Wednesday to 43 with 590 new infections.
Since March, Hillsborough County has had 34,851 cases. The next highest Tampa Bay county with over 15,000 fewer cases than Hillsborough is Pinellas with 18,994 cases. Polk has had 15,723 coronavirus cases and Pasco has had 7,560.
In good news, the weekly positivity rate in Tampa Bay is continuing a downward trend, and is now at 8%, according to the state.
Regardless, with millions of students returning to schools in the coming weeks, Gov. Ron DeSantis continues to push for in-person teaching, but consequences are already coming to fruition. Over 250 Martin County students and 16 staff members have been quarantined since brick-and-mortar classes started less than two weeks ago.
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This article appears in Aug 13-19, 2020.