Since the start of last year, the world has been taking many measures to ensure everyone’s safety against COVID-19 and develop ways to prevent, treat and cure it. As more people are being vaccinated against COVID-19, cases continue to decrease and demand for testing and vaccination declines and more private providers offer services, Hillsborough County’s response to the virus is winding down. Because of that, government departments like the Florida Division of Emergency Management and Florida Department of Health decided to cease daily reports for Florida counties on June 3.
“Florida has transitioned into the next phase of the COVID-19 response. Infections and disease control is a core function of the Florida Department of Health, and we continue to surveil, adapt and respond to COVID-19 to protect public health statewide,” stated Weesam Khoury, communications director at Florida Department of Health. “Florida’s case positivity has been below 5 percent for a month, and has continued to decrease over 10 weeks. Almost 85 percent of Florida’s seniors vaccinated. Nearly 90 percent of the population is eligible for the vaccine, which is widely available statewide.”
In Florida, one of the first two COVID-19 cases was reported in Hillsborough County on March 1, 2020, which is when COVID-19 data began being reported. As of July 18, according to the CDC, Florida’s total number of cases was 2,406,794, the number of fully vaccinated people was 10,240,997 (47.7 percent of the population) and the highest seven-day moving average of cases was 17,568 on the week of January 2-8.
In Hillsborough, as of July 16, the total number of cases was 150,433 the number of people vaccinated was 700,729 (54 percent of the population ages 12 and up) and the highest seven-day moving average of cases was 6,398 on the week of January 2-8.
Though the weekly and daily case numbers have gone down drastically and more people are being vaccinated, as we all continue to deal with the virus, residents and visitors of Hillsborough are still encouraged to follow the CDC’s COVID-19 guidelines and be mindful of the virus.
To view weekly data reports for COVID-19, find vaccination or testing sites or get any other information related to the virus, visit https://floridahealthcovid19.gov/. More information is also available at hcflgov.net/staysafe and https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/.
