Manatee County is taking longer to flatten the COVID-19 case curve than most of the state.
As of May 1, the county ranked fourth among 67 counties in the state for percentage of positive tests at 15.4% of 3,926 people tested, according to statistics from the Florida Department of Health.
Statewide, the positive test rate was 8.6% of 404,467 people tested.
The World Health Organization recommends a positivity rate of less than 10% before a community starts opening businesses and public gathering areas.
Gov. Ron DeSantis announced plans April 29 to start Phase 1 of reopening the state, which included restaurant dining, retail stores and other business operations previously deemed nonessential. Openings for some businesses were to begin May 4, as The Islander went to press.
Yet the county still must raise its rate of testing in the hope of lowering the positivity curve. As more people test negative, researchers can determine outbreak “hot spots,” Jacob Saur, Manatee County public safety director, said April 28 during a county commission meeting held via videoconference.
The county announced April 29 that the local DOH received 1,400 tests the day prior and would set up a third round of free drive-thru testing at the Bradenton Area Convention Center, 1 Haben Blvd., Palmetto, May 6-8, for up to 100 patients a day.
To be tested, people must make an appointment with the health department at 941-748-0747.
No-cost drive-thru testing also was available May 2 at four Manatee County Rural Health locations.
More tests meant relaxed testing guidelines, eliminating the need for a prescription, symptoms or exposure, according to Scott Works, MCR Health’s marketing director.
Saur said officials were working to set up a drive-thru regional site for Manatee and Sarasota counties operated by the Florida National Guard.
The guard arrived in Manatee County April 29, according to county administrator Cheri Coryea.
The state’s regional collection sites usually operate for at least 14 days and test 350-400 people each day, according to Saur.
“This could dramatically increase our regional testing stats soon,” he said.
Additionally, Saur said the state also continued to deploy regional incident management teams to the county’s long-term care facilities, where the majority of the county cases have been found.
Coryea said the teams assess facilities for infectious disease control and work with staff at the facilities to counsel and train employees on how to best protect themselves.
During an April 29 announcement about plans to reopen the state, DeSantis acknowledged that Manatee County was experiencing outbreaks at nursing homes and said the guard was sent to facilities to provide rapid testing — issuing results within an hour.
Also, in an effort to lower the positivity rate, the governor planned to ensure testing every day through mid-June was available for 30,000-40,000 people statewide.
Of 619 positive cases in the county reported May 3, 190 were residents or staff of long-term care facilities, totaling 30.7%; and 34 deaths of 59 in the county were residents or staff of such facilities, totaling 57.6%.
“The Department of Health Manatee has every possible resource within our nine facilities that have an outbreak,” Saur told the commission April 28. “They are working day and night to try and get that under control.”
According to Saur, with testing from the state, by mid-May, the county could see an increase of about 1,740 tests, not including MCR Health.
A Holmes Beach resident was the first known person to test positive from Anna Maria Island.
By May 3, two people tested positive on the island, including one in Holmes Beach and one in Bradenton Beach. No cases were reported in Anna Maria.