ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Orange County saw its highest jump in COVID-19 on Wednesday since the pandemic started, with 554 more positive cases.
About 58% of all the positive cases have been diagnosed in the past 13 days, officials said.
Those cases include almost 90 Orlando Fire Department firefighters.
At least one 22-yearold Orange County firefighter is in the hospital with COVID-19, officials said.
Overall, 168 people are in the hospital in Orange County, and 35 in the ICU.
Our local hospitals, @orlandohealth & @AdventHealth, say they have their highest number of Covid patients right now but ICU numbers are low because it's all younger patients. "We are not in crisis mode but we're very concerned about the rising numbers." Dr. Hsu at AdventHealth https://t.co/7HV2OCgQdG
— Lauren Seabrook (@LSeabrookWFTV) June 24, 2020
The number of deaths also went up Wednesday to 56, compared to 48 reported in Orange County on Monday.
A 40-year-old woman who died only spent one day in the hospital, officials said.
See the full news conference below:
WATCH LIVE: Orange County officials give update on COVID-19 as Florida breaks records with new casesWATCH LIVE: Orange County officials give live update on COVID-19 as Florida breaks records with new cases. Read: at.wftv.com/3dyaKzk
Posted by WFTV Channel 9 on Wednesday, June 24, 2020
Orange County Health Officer Dr. Raul Pino said the spike started with Memorial Day weekend and continued with the increased activity ever since.
Currently, there’s neither a criminal penalty for not wearing a mask nor a fine. However, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said if he doesn’t gain compliance he’s going to take more steps to ensure people are wearing them.
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer also said people should be wearing face masks, and called on residents in neighboring counties to also wear them.
“Those out there (who) say you have a constitutional right not to wear a mask, I’d say you have a civic duty to wear one,” Dyer said. “You have a duty to other people in the community to make sure you don’t spread the virus.. and you dont cause our small businesses that just open to have to close down again.”
Read: Florida reports record-shattering 5,500 new COVID-19 cases in 24 hours
Orange County has tested more than 114,000 people and has a positivity rate of 5.3%. The health department is trying to add more testing. On Tuesday, the Convention Center had its busiest day since the beginning, with more than 1,400 people tested.
Pino said about 20% of those who test positive are showing no symptoms, which makes it even more difficult to control.
Pino said it’s possible to get numbers low again with masks alone and without closing down again.
Numbers are also increasing on the west side too, and one resident found out the severity of the coronavirus after she lost her mother.
See the full story below:
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