DeSantis: State's COVID-19 numbers headed in the right direction

TAMPA, Fla. - Governor Ron DeSantis said Monday the state's COVID-19 numbers are heading in the right direction, but health officials said that does not mean it’s time to ease up.

DeSantis outlined an encouraging outlook with the number of ICU patients decreasing along with fewer people having COVID-19 symptoms showing up to the emergency room.

“Patients with coronavirus who have been hospitalized have declined by nearly 40% since peaking statewide on July 22,” said DeSantis.

With about 576,000 positive to date, DeSantis said last week was the sixth straight week of decline in the positivity rate. Over the last two weeks, the state recorded several days in the single digits.

“Last week we had the lowest percentage of tests that tested positive since the week of June 7,” the governor said.

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Florida new resident cases in orange; new resident deaths in gray. Note: Deaths usually appear to be trending down because of the delay in confirming the last few days of data. Source: Fla. Dept. of Health.

While the numbers are encouraging, there is more work to do. Dr. Jay Wolfson of USF Health said the demand for testing is down.

“There’s a certain complacency that’s developed around testing when people were standing in line or sitting in their cars for two or three hours, and we heard that people got frustrated and left the line. So, some people have decided not to get testing,” said Wolfson. “The level of testing has gone down but at the same time the positivity rate has declined. The hospitalizations have declined. The death rates have declined.”

In Tampa Bay, Hillsborough County’s positivity rate has stayed below 10% over the last two weeks, and Pinellas County hit a two-week low of 3.1% Sunday.

“We watch that percent positivity and today our two-week average just finally dropped below the 5%, which has been one of our big goals,” said Amber Boulding, the emergency manager for the city of St. Petersburg

Boulding said they are keeping an eye on the long term trends.

“The numbers show that what we’re doing is working. Pinellas County, St. Petersburg, we’ve worked really hard to get everyone to wear the masks and comply with that mandate,” she said.

Public health experts said those efforts must continue as the state monitors the virus in new ways.

“Now we have several new rapid test kits that have been approved by the federal government and those become available we’ll be able to really manage the cases much better, contain them,” said Wolfson.

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Public health experts said it’s ideal to keep the positivity rate to below 5% for a month or longer to know the virus is getting under control, so they said it’s important for communities to keep doing what’s working to drive those numbers down.