Health officials urge Central Floridians to mask up, social distance Labor Day weekend to avoid another COVID-19 spike

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Local leaders are warning residents to not get a false sense of security and let their guard down over Labor Day weekend.

COVID-19 cases have been going down in Orange County, but Health Officer Dr. Raul Pino said people still need to socially distance, wear their masks and wash their hands.

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“We can do it. We can live with this,” Pino said. “We have learned to. We can do it.”

AdventHealth has 300 people with COVID-19 in its hospital-system as of Thursday, which is about half of the admissions it had a few weeks ago.

But Tim Hendrix, medical director of AdventHealth Centra Care, said those numbers can easily increase again.

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“If people go out and start having large gatherings again without wearing masks, we’re going to start seeing those numbers creep back up,” Hendrix said. “It’s going to be a rollercoaster from here on out.”

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