Coronavirus “under control” in Orange County, health officials say

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Health officials say the Coronavirus pandemic is considered effectively “under control” in Orange County, after their rolling 14-day positivity rate fell below 5 percent.

The Florida Department of Health says the positivity rate hasn’t been under five percent since October 2020. Since then, more than half of the county’s eligible population has also been vaccinated against the virus.

READ: Florida reports 1,600 additional COVID-19 cases, 28 deaths as Orange County reaches milestone

Orange County Health Officer Dr. Raul Pino says they now have control measures in place to keep cases isolated, without the risk of widespread community outbreaks.

Dr. Pino says reaching the 5 percent threshold will also mean a key shift in resources for the health department.

READ: Out-of-work Floridians will soon get less money as federal compensation program ends

For the last year, Dr. Pino says about 90-percent of his staff was dedicated to COVID-19 efforts, working testing sites, vaccine sites, or contact tracing.

Now, with the pandemic considered under control, he says they’ll be reassigning staff back to some other priorities.

“When people were not there, they were home sleeping, so it was constant,” Dr. Pino says. “Right now, we’re probably down to 70 to 30...so we’re trying to bring the department back to normal work.”

READ: Coronavirus: New COVID-19 cases fall to lowest levels since last June

When asked what some of that work would be, Dr. Pino says they’ll be turning their attention back to another major health issue.

“Prior to this pandemic, we were getting ready to fight another pandemic...The HIV pandemic,” Dr. Pino says. “We’re ramping up our efforts. Hired an individual that needs to be hired for this fight, developing campaigns, providing test kits in the mail, and getting the hospital to test in the ER.”

Cox Media Group