TAMPA, Fla. — Raymond James Stadium not solely is the location of Tremendous Bowl 55, but additionally a logo of the coronavirus pandemic that has killed greater than 440,000 Individuals.
Greater than 1,300 of these folks died right here in Hillsborough County, which encompasses Tampa amongst its 1.4 million residents and this week contains becoming juxtaposition. Â
Colourful Tremendous Bowl signage has brightened the 65,890-seat stadium, the place the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will play the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs on Sunday. A digital roadside signal close by exhibits COVID-19 testing is accessible from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The stadium has served as a testing website.Â
In Hillsborough County, greater than 100,000 residents have examined constructive and that has led to about 2,7000 hospitalizations. Based mostly on circumstances per capita and check positivity, The New York Occasions has dubbed it “extraordinarily excessive threat” on its tracker.Â
“You can not escape COVID,” mentioned Gloria Castillo, a funeral director in Tampa. “It’s actually terrible on a regular basis.’’
Decided to maneuver ahead with a recreation that shall be broadcast world wide, the NFL is celebrating what it deems COVID-19 heroes. The league has invited 7,500 vaccinated healthcare staff in Florida to attend the sport totally free. They are going to be a part of a crowd the league says shall be capped at 25,000 due to the danger of the virus being unfold.
The free tickets for the healthcare staff have a median worth of $2,500 every and a complete of $18.75 million, in accordance with NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy.Â
“This program is designed to acknowledge these staff but additionally promote the significance of vaccines,” he mentioned whereas referring to healthcare staff as MVPs “who sacrificed a lot this 12 months to consolation and look after folks of their communities.”
However a rigidity exists as the sport approaches.
Lacking a 12 months after the Chiefs gained Tremendous Bowl 54 is Laurent Duvernay-Tardif. He’s an offensive lineman for the Chiefs and a skilled doctor who opted out of the 2020 season to assist COVID-19 sufferers.
Near 70 different gamers determined to not play this season, and greater than 250Â gamers have examined constructive for COVID-19. Lengthy-term efforts stay unknown even for individuals who recovered with out experiencing lingering signs.
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NFL groups have restricted the scale of crowds this season, however there are not any statistics on what number of followers have contracted the virus whereas on the stadium. Attendance on the Tremendous Bowl shall be lower than half of what’s sometimes seen at soldout stadiums internet hosting the sport in years previous.
“I simply suppose it’s irresponsible for folks to be gathering in giant teams, though I perceive they’re saying it is a a lot smaller group than they’ve ever had,” mentioned Carole Baskin the CEO of Large Cat Rescue who was featured within the Netlflix documentary sequence “Tiger King’’ who lives in Tampa. “But it surely doesn’t matter that it’s a smaller group. It’s far more folks than ought to be uncovered to one another for the aim of watching a recreation.
“We’re proper now coping with life or demise on this planet and I feel each one in all us ought to be doing our half to remain house.”
Tampa mayor Jane Castor has imposed a masks mandate for leisure areas and set a $500 wonderful for violators. However enforcement has been problematic in a state the place the governor, Ron DeSantis, banned localities from gathering masks fines.
However since NFL occasions for followers started right here Saturday, the league has employed a military of volunteers to implement the masks requirement.
“I’m inspired by what I’m seeing the NFL doing on the precise recreation itself,’’ mentioned Jill Roberts, an assistant professor on the College of South Florida within the Faculty of Public Well being. “I feel inside the stadium and the sport itself, the danger could be very low.
“My concern is an inflow of individuals going to bars and eating places and tailgating in areas close to the stadium and all of these issues. Tremendous Bowl events are going to be as huge of an issue as gatherings at Thanksgiving and Christmas had been, and we do know for positive these gatherings did affect the rise in circumstances that we’re seeing proper now.”
In relation to the pandemic, some folks in Tampa have already got seen greater than others.
A nurse
Suzie Dorner, a nurse supervisor at Tampa Normal Hospital, beamed with pleasure final week when she realized she’d been chosen as one in all three honorary captains for Tremendous Bowl 55 and would take part within the coin toss.
“Oh, my gosh,” Dorner mentioned after retired Bucs star Derrick Brooks informed her the information. “Thanks a lot. I’m so humbled and honored. I’m speechless.’’
However she additionally mentioned, “It has been a really tough, let’s see, 10, 11 months now. And it’s been my first 12 months as a nurse supervisor, too. So, it’s been very onerous to guide the crew via this pandemic.’’
This week, at the same time as the sport approached and the hoopla grew, Dorner’s temper shifted whereas speaking in regards to the pandemic.
“After I stroll into the hospital, it’s beginning to really feel like July once more,” she mentioned.
These had been darkish days at Tampa Normal Hospital, when the entire sufferers within the 18-bed, COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit had been on ventilators. The demise price in Hillsborough County has elevated by 15% over the previous 14 days, into the double digits this week.
Dorner, 31, has led a crew of about 50 nurses that attempted to consolation sufferers as they took their final breaths. Members of the family had been prohibited from getting into the unit to restrict publicity to the lethal virus.
“To be that individual, holding a affected person’s hand as they handed away, it’s loads to hold,”  Dorner mentioned.
She mentioned her maternal grandmother was a nurse in World Warfare II and impressed her to enter healthcare. However nothing ready her for the pandemic even because the demise charges have dropped.
In October, Dorner mentioned she helped open the hospital’s new, International Rising Illness Institute. It contains 59 beds accessible for COVID-19 sufferers in ICU.
“Caring for the COVID inhabitants is bodily, mentally and emotionally exhausting,’’ she mentioned. “It positively took a toll on my crew.
“We’ve realized much more in regards to the virus and we’ve grow to be extra comfy caring for these sufferers. However I don’t suppose it’s actually gotten simpler.”
A funeral director
Trying to make some extra cash, Gloria Castillo mentioned she thought of utilizing the limos from her funeral house in Tampa to move guests throughout Tremendous Bowl week. She mentioned she determined towards it due to COVID-19 considerations and is aware of what some folks is perhaps pondering.
“Folks would say, ‘Hey, the funeral house is booming,’ ” Castillo mentioned. “You see all of the our bodies and this and that, however for a few of us …”
Whereas 1000’s of funeral houses are owned by conglomerates, Castillo, who’s Black, is proprietor and funeral director of Integrity Funeral Companies.

“We’re out right here swimming within the water with the large whales,” she mentioned. “We’re simply making an attempt to carry on, OK?’”
She’s not alone.

Castillo mentioned lots of her clients, about half who’re Black, misplaced their jobs through the pandemic. Consequently, Castillo mentioned, they’re extra prone to go for cremation for $1,150 somewhat than a burial for roughly $6,500 — which suggests much less revenue for funeral administrators like herself.
One lady not too long ago contacted her and tried to work one thing out with different members of the family to no avail, in accordance with Castillo.

“They’ll’t pool collectively their funds as a result of they’re making an attempt to nonetheless pay hire, nonetheless making an attempt to eat, making an attempt to outlive,’’ Castillo mentioned.

Extra folks than traditional are searching for free cremation or burial companies from Hillsborough County, in accordance with Castillo, who mentioned monetary issues solely compound one other downside for folks of colour. They’ve suffered disproportionately from COVID-19.

“Nobody is talking about it,” she mentioned of the state of affairs.

Castillo mentioned her enterprise will stay viable, and she or he expressed pleasure in regards to the Tremendous Bowl being performed in Tampa.

However with the NFL spotlighting healthcare staff, Castillo famous that funeral administrators are sometimes the final folks to deal with COVID-19 victims.

“We’re the primary final responders,” she mentioned.
A professor
Jill Roberts, an assistant professor on the College of Florida, has studied the usage of molecular methods similar to pulsed-field gel electrophoresis to characterize microorganisms from sources similar to meals, medical samples, environmental samples and others.
Most individuals would higher perceive one other one in all her pursuits: COVID-19.Â
As a result of she resides in Tampa, she has taken explicit curiosity on the influence the virus has had on this metropolis and its inhabitants of about 390,000 folks.
“The excellent news, I suppose, if there’s excellent news, is these strains which have been going round the place we’ve been seeing the final extreme circumstances when it comes to deaths, our senior residents appear to have been protected,” Roberts mentioned.
“Nonetheless, sadly, we’re seeing numerous hospitalizations and so our ICU’s are getting sort of busy. So long as we hold our case numbers the place they’re at now, it’s manageable.”
Roberts lamented the shortage of enforcement of town’s masks ordinance. However she lauded leaders Hillsborough County and neighboring Pinellas County.
“We must always have had a lot, a lot larger outbreaks than we did,’’ she mentioned. “I feel that management made a distinction.”
In June, political management led to changing a parking zone at Raymond James Stadium right into a testing website. However on the finish of December, with Tremendous Bowl preparations to start, the testing website was moved to a different close by parking zone.
On Tuesday, a dozen vehicles drove onto the location, the place virtually 20,000 COVID-19 checks had been administered in January.
Michelle Van Dyke, a media relations strategist for Hillsborough County, may as effectively have been referring to final end result of COVID-19 when requested if the testing website will transfer again to the location of this 12 months’s Tremendous Bowl after the sport is performed.
“To be decided,” she mentioned.
