HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. -- During a special emergency meeting on Thursday, Hillsborough County commissioners voted to extend the state of emergency order, including the mask mandate.
Although the county is starting to cut back on testing sites as COVID-19 cases go down, county leaders say the positivity rate has been around six percent for weeks and that's still too high.
"Our positivity rate has been hanging around 6.2 percent for the last three or four weeks, we just can’t get to that five percent," said Les Miller Jr., Commission Chairman.
County leaders say they want to see a drop to five percent or lower before even considering removing the county-wide mask mandate.
"We do want to a place where children can safely attend schools, where businesses can reopen, and in order to do that I think we have to have a way better goal than five percent," said Pat Kemp, Hillsborough County Commissioner District 6.
It is not on the agenda yet but county commissioners say they could discuss the face mask mandate again in October.
