ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings is encouraged by the recent downward trends in coronavirus cases in the last couple of days.
What You Need To Know
- In the last few days, Florida has seen a downward trend
- County's economic recovery task Force to see what's ahead for Phase 2
- Get more coronavirus coverage here
The mayor reconvened the Orange County Economic Recovery Task Force Tuesday to help deal with spikes the state has seen recently.
Shortly after Memorial Day, the county saw a staggering rise in single-day case reporting, at times seeing a 1,000-case jump in a 24-hour period. Last Saturday, the state saw its biggest record of cases at 9,585.
The past few days though, a downward trend in new coronavirus cases has been seen in the county. The Florida Department of Health reported 300 new cases in Orange County on Tuesday.
The task force is reconvening to look at what's ahead as we continue through Phase 2 of economic reopening.
Demings does not think Gov. Ron DeSantis will open the state to Phase 3 anytime soon. Demings is closely monitoring people sick enough to go to the hospital
Local hospital CEOs shared with him what they are seeing.
"They are beginning to see an uptick in hospitalizations, while its still well below capacity. The average age of people who are being hospitalized has gotten younger," Demings said.
Orange County Health Officer Dr. Raul Pino said we are seeing the highest number of people hospitalized so far, but there are still more than 400 beds available in the county.
"If we need to increase the number of beds for whatever reason in the near future, the first step the hospital would take is to stop elective procedures before we even plan for surge capacity," Pino said.
He said patients are generally not as sick as they were before and are not requiring as much intensive care. That trend of younger patients is also continuing, some have died.
Not all hospital beds being used are coronavirus patients.
Demings said cases rising in recent weeks is likely due to gatherings on the Memorial Day Holiday, protests, and what he calls COVID fatigue: People getting tired of being home and starting to be more careless with mask wearing.
He is encouraging the community to continue wearing masks and social distance.
DeSantis said Orange County has few cases relative to the population and has one of the lowest fatality rates in the states.
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