LISTEN: New COVID-19 Dashboard Measures Pandemic Recovery

TAMPA -- Under Governor DeSantis' orders, local authorities are required to use several metrics before deciding whether their communities are ready to reopen following the COVID-19 shutdowns.

The Tampa Bay Partnership is gathering those data points daily and is releasing them on its State of the Region website.

Partnership research director Dave Sobush says the benchmarks include the number of tests and percentage of positive tests, emergency room visits for influenza-like or COVID-like illnesses, the number of new cases per day, and hospital occupancy rates.

Leading up to the weekend, Sobush said hospital bed occupancy is up and vacancy rates are down since April... from 40 to 25 percent... since hospitals began scheduling elective surgeries again.

The website shows daily or weekly data points, along with a moving average to smooth out the spikes.

Sobush says as of Friday, the number of cases per day have increased by about 20.

"These are the metrics that will determine whether we move forward from full Phase One into Phase Two," Sobush said.

Here's a link to the dashboard:

Listen to an interview with Dave Sobush:

Photo: Getty Images


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