Coronavirus in Tampa Bay schools: a weekly update

With a quarter of the school year in the rearview mirror, the Tampa Bay area has surpassed 1,000 cases of COVID-19 and the weekly counts are continuing to escalate.

Here is how things looked around the Tampa Bay area this past week:

Hernando County: Three cases at Nature Coast Technical High School brought the year-to-date total for that school to 15. There were three cases at Central High and two at Winding Waters K-8.

Hillsborough County: Plant High continued to be the hot spot, with 9 more cases reported this week for a total of 23 since schools reopened on Aug. 31.

Hammond Elementary in Odessa had five cases, and Bryant Elementary in Westchase had four. Riverview, Plant City and Sickles high schools, West Tampa Elementary and Florida Connections had three cases each.

These campuses had two cases each: Bay Crest, Yates, Mintz, Summerfield and Witter elementary schools; Barrington, Farnell and Eisenhower middle schools; Alonso, Armwood, Bloomingdale, Gaither, Jefferson, Newsome, Steinbrenner and Sumner high schools; Bridgeprep Academy of Tampa and Navitagor Academy of Leadership.

Each of these had one case:

Bailey, Ballast Point, Bevis, Boyette Springs, Bryan, Citrus Park, Colson, Deer Park, Grady, Lanier, Mabry, Maniscalco, McKitrick, McDonald, Oak Grove, Palm River, Reddick, Robinson, Schmidt, Thompson, Valrico, Walden Lake, Westchase and Woodbridge elementary schools; Adams, Benito, Burnett, Ferrell, Franklin, Marshall, Martinez, Randall, Rodgers and Walker middle schools; Lutz K-8; and East Bay, Freedom, Hillsborough, Leto, Robinson and Wharton high schools.

Also with one case each were Independence Academy, Learning Gate Community School, Lutz Preparatory, Pepin Academies, Sunlake Academy of Math and Science, Trinity, Victory Charter, and Dorothy Thomas Center.

There were nine staff cases at the Hillsborough school district office, for a total of 22 since Aug. 31.

Pasco County: The week began with three cases reported at Pasco’s virtual school program, called MySchool Online. Seven Oaks Elementary and River Ridge High had three cases each. Odessa Elementary and Hudson High had two cases each.

These schools had one case each: Anclote, Connerton, Lake Myrtle, New River and West Zephyrhills elementary schools; River Ridge Middle; and Wiregrass Ranch, Anclote and Wesley Chapel high schools.

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Pinellas County: After a slow September, weekly case counts are growing in Pinellas, with St. Petersburg High continuing to have problems. Two more cases were reported at St. Pete High this week, and there could be more if the school is included in Friday’s report, which will not be available until Monday. The total to date at the school: 13 cases.

East Lake High and Plato Academy-St. Petersburg had four cases each.

Osceola Middle and Plato Academy-Palm Harbor had three cases each.:

In addition to St. Petersburg High, these schools had two cases each: Ridgecrest and Bardmoor elementary schools and Pinellas Park High.

These schools had one case each: Cypress Woods, Frontier, Lake St. George, Leila G. Davis, Lynch, Mount Vernon, and McMullen-Booth elementary schools; Oak Grove and Safety Harbor middle schools; and Boca Ciega, Northeast, Palm Harbor University, Seminole and Tarpon Springs high schools.

Also with one case each were Disston Academy, the Walter Pownall Administrative Center, Clearwater Adult Education Center and Madeira Beach Fundamental K-8.

The weekly total for the four districts was 198 cases, not including whatever was reported in Pinellas for Friday. To date, there have been 1,104 cases.

Colleges and universities:

Over the last week, the University of South Florida reported that 44 students and two employees across the school’s three campuses have tested positive. Cases listed are those that students, faculty or the health department report to the university and those who test positive at the Student Health Center. The university also implemented an electronic system to allow those who test elsewhere to self-report. Based on that, the university updated it’s positive case count from Sept. 13 to Oct.5 to include an additional 36 cases.

The University of Tampa reported 121 cases over the last week, all of them students.

Over the same time period, St. Petersburg College reported five cases across its 13 campuses and Hillsborough Community College reported six cases across its four campuses. Eckerd College reported zero active cases this week.

Previous reports:

Week ending Aug. 28

Week ending Sept. 4

Week ending Sept. 11

Week ending Sept. 18

Week ending Sept. 25

Week ending Oct. 4

Week ending Oct. 11