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Orange County, Fla. – Although the number of COVID-19 cases across the state and region has skyrocketed in recent weeks, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said Monday that he is beginning to feel that the area may be seeing some signs of improvement.
As of Monday, there have been 14,407 COVID-19 patients in Orange County since the virus was first detected in Florida on March 1. Of those cases, 375 were reported between Sunday and Monday. The local cumulative positivity rate is 9.2% and the local recovery rate is 61%, according to Dr. Raúl Pino of the Florida Department of Health in Orange County.
While those numbers may be among the highest in the state, Pino said researchers are beginning to see evidence of what they expect a decline to be.
He said last week, the incident rate per 100,000 was 271 compared to 343 per 100,000 the week before.
“Then there was a reduction in our rate, right there. And also as part of the hopeful news that the mayor was talking about in the data, last week we saw a reduction, a negative growth of 21% compared to the previous week and that coincides with the second week in which we have the mask of Orange County ordinance and that shouldn’t be a coincidence, “Pino said.
Orange County’s mask mandate began on June 20.
“So I think that, in the midst of the misery that we are talking about, there are some bright spots there and that we are managing the virus is essentially what we are telling them,” Demings said.
In terms of the most severe cases, 357 COVID-19 patients are currently hospitalized in Orange County, according to Pino. He said there are 511 hospital beds, 499 ventilators, 58 adult ICU beds, 46 children’s ICU beds, and 13 long-term care facility beds available in the county.
Also new with the numbers, Pino said those who test positive for antibodies to the coronavirus count as a new case as of July 1. So far, he said there have been 698 positive antibody tests in Florida.
According to Pino, there are plans to eventually expand the availability of antibody testing in Orange County, but right now the focus is on controlling small outbreaks.
While leaders voiced concern last week that July 4 could be troublesome and lead to yet another spike in cases as the state saw after the busy Memorial Day weekend, Demings said he was happy to see people with masks and social distancing.
“I drove a lot through the county. I saw a much better response on the Independence Day weekend than on Memorial Day weekend in terms of people wearing masks and following CDC guidelines, ”said Demings. “That was the kind of desired response we wanted to see from our community and I think if that continues, then we will somehow control our destiny in terms of stopping the spread of the virus.”
Walt Disney World will begin reopening its parks on Saturday, with both MLS and NBA playing soon in Orlando.
Demings said he is confident that leaders will resume this type of activity safely and take appropriate precautions to prevent outbreaks.
“At this point, I am quite comfortable with the decision Disney has made to reopen due to the extent to which they have gone to ensure a safe environment. Again, we saw something positive today in terms of, the decrease in the positivity rate in the last week and a few other things, so we have to take the good news where there is bad news as well and we have to try to stimulate our economy, but not we want to do it at the cost of risking people’s safety, ”said Demings.
When it comes to sports teams, Pino said they are likely to make players test positive sometime, but the key will be to examine the transmission.
“The question is not if they are going to have positive people, but positive people. We are in a pandemic environment, “said Pino. “The question is how many and what kind of transmission is going to happen there. If it’s just a small group of people among the closest or if there is transmission between the teams, and that will indicate, you know, some kind of different action is needed. “
He added that players are tested regularly and league leaders will take some “tougher considerations” about tournaments if the need arises.
Earlier Monday, the Mayor of Miami-Dade County ordered gyms to be closed once again and restaurants to be moved to take-out alone due to the recent increase in cases. Demings said as of now, that he has no plans to do the same.
“I think we would consider that in consultation with our health experts, if they could identify a disproportionate number of restaurants and gyms as outbreak centers or groups that started an outbreak, so we are not seeing that at the moment.” he said.
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