State Health Department finally releases new report, reflecting data collected from April 7 through April 13
Sarasota County’s COVID positivity rate has declined slightly once again, to 12.68%, averaged over the seven days through April 16, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported.
That compares to 12.8% in the April 9 update that the CDC issued, as The Sarasota News Leader reported last week.
The April 2, seven-day average put the figure at 12.94%. On March 19, the figure was 9.42%.
Additionally, this week, the latest CDC charts again show little case data for Sarasota County.
The Florida Department of Health in Tallahassee finally has released a new update, however, after providing no information for several weeks. On April 20, the News Leader found a report for the period of April 7 through April 13. The data for Sarasota County that was collected during that period put the count of new COVID cases at 151, averaged out to 32.5 per 100,000 residents. The relevant chart also said that the county’s positivity rate, based on those new cases recorded from April 7 through April 13, was 8.7%.
An accompanying chart showed that the positivity rate for the state was 8.3% for the week beginning March 17; 9.2% for the week beginning March 24; and 8.6% for the week beginning March 31.
Among other data for the period of April 7 through April 13, a chart showed that the statewide positivity rate was 8.4%. Further, the state Health Department noted a total of 31 COVID deaths across Florida over the same seven days.
Among other details in the CDC’s April 20 status update for Sarasota County, the agency noted that the number of new COVID patient admissions to county hospitals for the seven days through that date was 7.9 per 100,000 residents. Further, the tally of county hospital beds in use by COVID patients over the seven days through April 20 represented 2.1% of the total, the CDC said, based on information it had received.
Another CDC chart noted that, oer the seven days through April 17, the agency estimated that 41 new COVID patients had been admitted to county hospitals, which the agency added was a 24% increase from the previous seven-day figure it had recorded.
The CDC also reported that the number of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds in county hospitals being used by COVID patients represented 2.5% of the total, as indicated by data collected over the seven days through April 17. That figure was down 0.3%, the CDC added.
As the News Leader has reported, the Sarasota Memorial Hospital health care system ceased its regular COVID patient updates on March 24.
Among other details in its latest report, the Florida Department of Health showed the following numbers of new COVID cases across the state in recent weeks:
- 8,541 for the week starting March 17.
- 9,359 for the week starting March 24.
- 8,318 for the week starting March 31.
- 7,382 for the week starting April 7.
The CDC’s April 20 status update for Sarasota County again placed it in the “Low” transmission category, which was unchanged from the April 13 status. Moreover, the latest CDC map showing the transmission levels for every Florida county showed all of them at “Low.” That map represented data that the CDC had tallied from April 6 through April 12.
The map was unchanged from the April 6 version.