TAMPA, Fla. — The director of the Florida Department of Health in Hillsborough County told members of the county’s emergency policy group that COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continue to increase.

“The data is clear: our COVID-19 activity in Hillsborough County is at a high level, and it’s widespread,” Dr. Douglas Holt said during the EPG’s virtual meeting Thursday.

Holt said as of June 25, 7,332 positive cases have been reported in the county. That’s up 61 percent from a week ago.

Sixty percent of the positive cases recorded from June 18-June 24 are in the 0-34 age groups.

Hospital cases have also increased to 269 on Thursday, up from 196 one week ago.

“Our daily admissions have now shown to be significantly increased, have had less impact on our total hospitalizations as the hospitals have also been able to offset some of this with discharges,” said Holt.

Holt said 25 percent of the county’s regular hospital beds and 20 percent of ICU beds were still available.

Tampa General Hospital is among those seeing the impacts of increased cases.

“Tampa General Hospital has experienced an increase in the number of inpatients with COVID-19. However, we are still caring for COVID-19-positive patients and we have capacity for more,” TGH President and CEO John Couris said in a statement.

Couris went on to state that surge capacity is part of every hospital’s preparedness plan, and it’s something the hospital trains for annually.