ORLANDO, Fla. — Some Orange County residents are heading to vaccination sites after health officials revealed Wednesday that COVID-19 cases are back on the rise and stepped up calls for people to get vaccinated, especially as variant cases grow.

Dr. Raul Pino, head of the Florida Department of Health in Orange County, said there were 382 new cases of COVID-19 reported in the county on Tuesday, the highest number since May 22.

The 14-day rolling positivity rate is 5.99%, going up nearly 2 percentage points since the last news conference before the Fourth of July holiday weekend. County officials say the positivity rate was as low as 3% at one point.

Orlando resident Xavier Coca said he decided to come to Orange County's Barnett Park vaccination site for many reasons, including hearing more about the Delta variant. 

Being in the construction business also helped to nudge him forward because he has to communicate with many people each day, he said.

Coca had been hearing about getting vaccinated often, and he said those closest to him kept hounding him. 

"The increase is not alarming, but it's trending, which indicates that it will continue if we don't take the necessary steps to curb this increase," Pino said.

The highest percentage of positive cases are among people ages 15 to 34 — the age group with the highest number of unvaccinated people, outside of children younger than 12.

Pino said the need to get vaccinated bears out in the data. Among recent COVID hospitalizations, he said 95% of the patients were unvaccinated. He also said unvaccinated people made up 95% of all COVID deaths.

"Ninety five percent percent of our hospitalizations were among unvaccinated people. Ninety five of all deaths, 95% of all deaths that we have since that day until (Tuesday) were among unvaccinated people. So it means that 95% of hospitalizations and 95% of the deaths are mostly preventable, if those individuals were fully vaccinated,” he said.

"This is the time to get vaccinated," Pino continued. "If we do not take those steps, if the people who are unvaccinated do not adhere to CDC guidelines for unvaccinated people ... we are going to have, as described in the national press, and we said it before, we are going to have a pandemic brewing among unvaccinated people, and we are going to have about 60% of our population protected."

Currently, about 59% of Orange County residents over the age of 12 have gotten at least one dose of a COVID vaccine. 

Pino and Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said they will continue to reach out to get more people to get the vaccine, and try to increase access.

"We will continue to monitor this number ... to determine if adjustments become necessary in our community," Demings said. "Again, we must continue to increase the number of persons getting vaccinated in our community in order to reduce the positivity rate."

It's especially important given growing concerns about variants, particularly the Delta variant. Pino said two COVID people who died in Orange County had the Delta variant. There are 40 known cases of the variant in the county, but the actual number is likely higher.

Pino's biggest concern is that the continued growth of variants will lead to a variant that would render the COVID vaccines ineffective.

"Unvaccinated people are a factory for variants because natural selection, it's not that the virus is smart, it's that it mutates in the process," Pino said. "The more people that have the ability to host the virus because they are not vaccinated, the more likely that the virus will continue to mutate."

Getting the vaccination rate up now is especially important with school coming back in full in just over a month.

“Throughout the summer, we’ve been hosting immunization vaccination sites for our families to take advantage of,” Orange County Public Schools spokeswoman Shari Bobinski said. “We’ve been sending mass notification messages to our families so they know where those school sites are and what time we will be holding those.”

Data from the school systems shows about 5,818 people have been vaccinated at school sites, which will reopen again following a week break. Since July, the school district only reported 14 COVID-19 cases and only five people are still under quarantine due to close contact.

In the month leading up to the start of the school year, the board will make any additional decisions about its health and safety guidelines.

“The board has time to continue to monitor the situation,” Bobinski said. “We’re in the process of updating our safety and procedures health manual for our schools. So, that will continue to be modified based on what’s happening in the community.”

During a July 13 school board meeting, she said that the board indicated it would shift its masking policy to make it optional on school grounds.

If a person cannot or will not get vaccinated, Pino urges they continue to follow CDC protocols, including wearing a mask and social distancing.

Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 145,674 cases of COVID-19 in Orange County, and 1,362 deaths related to the virus.

Reporter Marisa Silvas contributed to this story.