Coronavirus in Tampa Bay schools: a weekly update

Coronavirus cases in Tampa Bay area schools continued a downward overall trend this past week after frenzied activity following the winter holidays. The total case count for the school year rose above the 10,000 mark.

As in prior weeks, the Tampa Bay Times is listing only those schools with the largest numbers of cases in this report. But all are included in our interactive map, and there are links in each section to the school district dashboards for more details.

Hernando County: The district reported 23 cases this past week, the lowest number since November.

Six of the cases were at Springstead High in Spring Hill.

There were two cases each at Explorer K-8, Winding Waters K-8, West Hernando Middle and Weeki Wachee High.

Hillsborough County: As in Hernando, the 213 reported cases in Hillsborough were a low compared to recent months. But, with schools closed on Friday, there could be a delay in reporting. (The district dashboard showed only two cases for Friday.)

There were eight cases this past week in the school district offices, which have recorded 148 cases since the Times started counting them on Aug. 31.

Benito Middle and SLAM Apollo Beach each had seven cases. Gaither, Jefferson and Strawberry Crest high schools each had six. Freedom and Riverview high schools, along with SLAM in Citrus Park, each had five cases.

These schools each had four cases: Bailey, Fishhawk Creek and Ruskin elementary schools; Hillsborough, Leto and Plant high schools; and Smith Middle. Plant, Newsome and Steinbrenner continue to be the three high schools in Hillsborough that have seen 100 or more cases. They are joined by Sunlake High in Pasco.

Pasco County: With 111 cases, the district saw an uptick this week, but things were still better than they were in December and January.

J.W. Mitchell in Trinity had seven cases, for a total of 80 cases this school year.

Six cases were reported in MySchool Online, and five in the transportation department. Charles S. Rushe Middle School had five cases. Odessa Elementary and River Ridge Middle School had four cases each.

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Pinellas County: The district reported 175 cases, and these do not include those recorded on Friday. That’s about on par with recent weeks.

Osceola Fundamental High reported 11 cases, seven of them on Monday.

There were eight cases at the Walter Pownall Service Center in Largo, which has reported 63 staff cases since the start of the school year.

There were five each at Ozona Elementary, Seminole Middle and Tarpon Springs High. There were four each at Belleair Elementary, Hollins High, Palm Harbor Middle and Thurgood Marshall Fundamental Middle School.

Throughout the four districts, the Times is aware of 10,231 cases so far this school year. Nearly all of these are in public schools, as private schools are not required to release COVID-19 test data. That total includes 522 that were reported this week.

Colleges and universities:

Since Feb. 5, the University of South Florida reported that 61 students across the school’s campuses have tested positive. Cases listed are those that have been reported to the university and those who test positive at the Student Health Center.

Over the same time period, the University of Tampa has reported 11 student cases.

St. Petersburg College reported seven cases across its 13 campuses and Hillsborough Community College reported nine cases across its four campuses. Eckerd College reported one active case among residential students this week.

Recent reports:

Week ending Jan. 9

Week ending Jan. 15

Week ending Jan. 22

Week ending Jan. 29

Week ending Feb. 5

Staff writer Divya Kumar contributed to this report.