ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Many communities across the country, including in Central Florida, are looking to see 70% of their population with at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine before completely easing restrictions.

But one medical expert says he believes easing of restrictions can happen before that threshold is met.

In Orange County, in order to reach Phase 3, which means all restrictions would be lifted, officials want to see 70% of population vaccinated and/or a 2-week positivity rate at or below 5%.

The expert who spoke to Spectrum News said we may not need to reach as high of a vaccination percentage before cases start to decrease.

Janie Drummond was hesitant to get the COVID-19 vaccination, at first.

“Then, I realized that I couldn’t be with my 90-year-old dad, or other older relatives without it," she said.

It was a game changer for her and her family.

Now, she feels free to start easing back to her pre-pandemic way of life.

“It was really liberating to me, and I had no idea I would feel that way, but I did," Drummond said.

However, she knows it takes a village, or in this case, a county.

Orange County is inching closer to reaching a 14-day rolling percent positivity rate at or below 5%.

But Dr. Amesh Adalja, Senior Scholar with Johns Hopkins University, has a number in mind for when the country could see cases drop dramatically.

“Forty percent is the number that I have my eye on," said Adalja, who is also an infectious disease critical care and emergency medicine physician.

He’s talking about 40% of the population fully vaccinated. 

“Looking at the data from Israel, which is one of the most highly vaccinated countries, we see that their cases plummeted precipitously when they hit around that 40% mark of full vaccination," Adalja said. "There was a tipping point there. I think we will get there in the United States as we get to that number."

He says evidence appears to be in favor of rolling back mask restrictions for fully vaccinated people.

“I think right now the data shows that a fully vaccinated person is very unlikely to get infected, and even less likely to spread the infection. So I think you may see some softening on indoor mask recommendations," said Dr. Adalja.

Alvina Chu, with the Florida Department of Health in Orange County, said he would like to see all three Phase 3 criteria hit.

“We would like to see all of that concurrently happen together," he said.

According to the Florida Department of Health, Orange County has fully vaccinated approximately 33.5% of its population.