Hillsborough‘s Emergency Policy Group got a rundown of the latest COVID-19 numbers from the county’s health director, Monday.
Dr. Doug Holt told the board most numbers appear to be leveling off.
Cases, tests and ICU occupancy were all up slightly this past week. Hospitalizations and the number of people presenting symptoms at the hospital were trending lower.
“So, again, we hope that there’s a flattening of the admissions as well, and or decreasing,” said Kevin Wagner, a county analyst presenting the figures.
One disturbing trend is the number of COVID-19 deaths in Hillsborough County, which is up 54.3 percent from the previous seven days - already substantially higher than the seven days before that.
There were, again, calls from the public to end the county’s mask mandate.
“Ever since you instituted the mask rule the number of positive tests have skyrocketed,” said caller Tom Odom.
“Why do none of you ever comment on the private medical studies that talk about how masks are actually worse?” asked caller Barry Jackson.
But Holt pointed to a recent case study which showed masks were effective in stopping COVID-19 transmission between two hair stylists who had tested positive for the virus and 139 clients who’d been exposed. Both they and their clients had worn masks, and contact tracing showed none of the customers had become infected.
A majority of board members one again voted to leave the mask mandate in place. The 5-3 vote carried with Sheriff Chad Chronister, Plant City Mayor Rick Lott and School Board Chair Melissa Snively voting no.
Another topic of discussion ahead of this week’s Hillsborough school board meeting was a question about how many of the county’s summer school programs had to closed due to COVID-19.
Snively told the panel she agreed that could be important information as parents look to make their decision about what to do with their kids for the coming school year.
“Yes, I can to get that information for you by Thursday,” she said.
Some board members also said they are concerned about the number of tests being performed and questioned what could be done to increase that availability.
County workers say they’re currently running at “max staffing”. So, anything beyond the 8,600 tests conducted this past week would be - in their words – “a challenge”.
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