The numbers don’t lie: COVID-19 is still a major force in the community. However, with lack of demand for testing, three county facilities are closing their doors.
Florida added 2,470 COVID-19 cases and 99 deaths Tuesday, indicating the fight to curb the statewide spread was far from over.
The latest infections brought the total number of statewide cases to 687,909. In Florida alone, 13,579 people have died since March. The nation’s total is now up to more than 200,000 deaths.
Though the numbers are still far from manageable, the demand for testing is on the decline, according to the Florida Department of Health. Two testing sites have closed over the last week and another will close Saturday.
Town ‘N Country’s site at Tampa Family Health Centers and Redeemer Lutheran Church in Sun City Center shut their doors over the last seven days and Ruskin’s SouthShore Community Resource Center will see its last patient on Sept. 26.
That leaves six operating county sites, including Raymond James Stadium. Public officials said a few of its facilities have been operating at less than 20 percent capacity on some days and thus it only made sense to reduce the number of testing sites available. Plant City’s testing site will remain open as one of the six available locations.
Health officials encouraged residents to continue making appointments if they believe they have COVID-19 symptoms or if they were exposed to someone with COVID-19. The testing data helps capture a snapshot of the community. That snapshot then can show the positivity rate for the county, the region and the state as a whole.
The World Health Organization said communities need to have a positivity rate of five percent or lower for two weeks before it is safe to loosen social distancing requirements. Florida’s numbers are drawing a debate among healthcare officials. Some believe we are far from the mark while others say we are just on the edge.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the state’s average weekly positivity rate is at 11 percent. The Florida Department of Health disagrees and it uses a different testing algorithm. By using negative retests but not positive retests, the FDOH calculates the weekly positivity rate to be right at five percent.
