ORLANDO, Fla. — Coronavirus hospitalizations are starting to go down in Central Florida and now AdventHealth leaders are expected to downgrade their emergency status. 

This is the second time AdventHealth scaled back its status level in recent weeks.

The system went from “black” status to “red” on Sept. 1, which meant some elective surgeries could go on, if they were outpatient.

Now, it’s going down another level to yellow status’s which means more positive changes in protocols.

That expected status change means even more of the deferred surgeries can now move forward. 

After more than a month of rising cases caused by the more transmissible delta variant, cases are starting to decline. 

An average of the last two weeks shows 15,610 new cases every day in Florida, which is a 28 percent decrease from before. 

Despite the latest surge in the pandemic, the U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, is optimistic because many people are choosing to protect themselves by getting the vaccine. 

“We are seeing every day hundreds of thousand of peoples make a choice to get vaccinated. We’re also seeing that the vaccines are protecting people again the worst of delta,” said Dr. Murthy. 

Health experts do warn, even though we’re seeing a drop in cases, deaths from the virus will continue to rise for the next few weeks. 

The state is fast approaching 47,000 deaths since the pandemic began with 344 deaths a day reported on average over the last 14 days, which are some of the highest numbers ever in the state.

One health expert said we could see upwards of 56,000 total deaths by the time the delta variant subsides.