TAMPA, Fla. — About 21 million people live in the state of Florida. In order to reopen, the federal government is urging each state to test at least two percent of its residents.
With Florida’s stay at home order set to expire in two days, the big question is, are Florida’s testing numbers at the asked for percentage?
When you take a look throughout the Tampa Bay area and its surrounding counties, testing numbers barely hit 1 percent.
All persons with tests reported in 10 Tampa Bay’s viewing area as of April 27, 2020
- Citrus - 1,531 tested / population 149,657 = 1% of the population tested
- Desoto 506 tested / population 184,945 = 0.27% of the population tested
- Hardee 127 tested / population 27,731 = 0.45% of the population tested
- Hernando 1,609 tested / population 193,920 = 0.82% of the population tested
- Highlands 1,069 tested / population 106,221 = 1% of the population tested
- Manatee 3,511 tested / population 403,253 = 0.87% of the population tested
- Pasco 5,192 tested / population 553,947 = 0.93% of the population tested
- Pinellas 13,250 tested / population 974,996 = 1.4% of the population tested
- Polk 6,804 tested / population 724,777 = 0.9% of the population tested
- Sarasota 4,346 tested / population 433,742 = 1% of the population tested
The only county within the Tampa Bay area that comes close to the two percent is Hillsborough County. As of April 27, of the 1,472,000 people living in Hillsborough County, 18,931 have been tested, which equals about 1.28 percent of the population.
During his visit to Tampa Monday, Gov. Ron DeSantis praised the county's response to the pandemic.
“This is one of the best performing counties, not just in the state of Florida but probably in the country,” DeSantis said.
Now, keep in mind, Florida’s stay at home order expires in two days.
And naturally, we have a lot of questions about how will restaurants, barbershops, hair salons, and other non-essential businesses open come May 1.
Counties all across Florida are waiting to hear what DeSantis has in store. On Wednesday, he plans to share how he will reopen the state safely.
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