COVID-19 positivity rate in Sarasota County at 22% as of seven-day average through June 19, up slightly from June 12 figure of 21.7%, CDC says
Sarasota County’s COVID-19 positivity rate climbed slightly over the week, ending up with a seven-day average of 22% as of June 19, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported. For the seven days through June 12, the figure was 21.7%.
The CDC pointed out that its June 19 number marked a 0.08% uptick, compared to its prior seven-day average.
Additionally, the total number of cases recorded in the county over the seven days through June 21 was 1,404. That marked a 3% decline from the seven-day figure of 1,447 that the CDC reported on June 14.
Those data were the latest available from the CDC prior to the publication of this issue of The Sarasota News Leader.
In its overall update for Sarasota County, as of June 23, the CDC continued to classify the transmission of COVID-19 as “High.” The agency also put the case rate per 100,000 people at 333.61, averaged over the previous seven days. In the June 16 report, the CDC cited a rate of 335.45 cases per 100,000 people.
Further, the CDC noted that, as of June 23, the number of new patients admitted to county hospitals over the prior seven days was 19.8 per 100,000 people. On June 16, that number was 20.1.
Finally, as of June 23, the percentage of staffed hospital inpatient beds in use by individuals with confirmed COVID-19 cases was 4.9%. The latter figure compared to 5% in the June 16 update.
The estimated number of new county COVID-19 hospital admissions over the seven days through June 20, the CDC said, was 112. That marked a 30.8% jump, compared to the estimate for the previous seven days, the CDC said.
Sarasota Memorial Hospital (SMH) has noted a rise in its patient counts, compared to the reports its staff released last week. The highest number the News Leader noted over the week prior to its June 17 issue was 67 patients, tallied between Sarasota Memorial’s two campuses — in Sarasota and in Venice. For the period before the publication of this issue, the largest total was 86, as shown in SMH’s June 22 report. However, just a day later, the count had fallen to 81.
On June 17, the health care system had 63 COVID-19 patients. Thus, the highest figure over the past week is up approximately 36%, compared to the largest number last week.
Moreover, those figures contrast with a May 3 COVID-19 patient total of 23 and a May 19 figure of 30.
Additionally, on June 22, SMH noted that six of its COVID patients were in Intensive Care Units (ICUs). That number was unchanged on June 23. Last week, as the News Leader reported on June 17, no more than five COVID patients were in SMH Intensive Care Units on a given day.
The health care system also recorded one new COVID patient death this week, bringing its total to 670 since the first coronavirus cases were identified in the county in March 2020.
Among other data available on June 23, the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Coronavirus Resource Center map showing the number of COVID-19 cases it had documented per 100,000 people in each Florida county put the total for Sarasota County at 97.1. In Southwest Florida, the only county with a higher figure was Hillsborough, with 97.2. However, Polk County, in the Tampa Bay region, had a figure of 106.3.
Other Southwest Florida counties’ case totals per 100,000 people were as follows: Pinellas, 94.3; Manatee, 86.9; Charlotte, 73.1; and Lee, 76.4.
Miami-Dade continued to have the highest count statewide, as shown on the Coronavirus Resource Center map on June 23. That was 174.1 cases per 100,000 people. Broward had the second-highest figure: 121.1.
However, Palm Beach County, which has had among the top totals in past weeks, had a case rate of 93.7 on June 23 — lower than the Sarasota County total.
