On Monday, Mayor Jerry Demings of Orange County, Florida-where the city of Orlando and multiple major amusement parks are located-strongly recommended that everyone in the county wear masks while in crowded indoor spaces, regardless of whether or not they've been vaccinated.
His advice arrives as the famed tourism destination-which is home to Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando Resort, SeaWorld Orlando and Legoland Florida Resort-experiences a fresh surge of COVID-19 infection, which (it's assumed) is linked to the swarms of summer visitors flocking the area.
The county's COVID positivity rate, as measured on a 14-day rolling average, has jumped to 7.78 percent, up from the 4.28 percent recorded at the end of June. According to Forbes, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now considers Orange County to have fallen back into the "high-risk category for community transmission."
Still, Demings said that he was not about to reinstate a mask mandate, having lifted the previous one on June 5. At this time, donning masks indoors when social distancing isn't possible remains merely a "strong recommendation."
Dr. Raul Pino of the Florida Department of Health in Orange County stated yesterday that COVID-19 cases have doubled within the span of a week. The department has recorded 400 new cases per day since July 8, compared to the 200 seen daily the previous week.
It's assumed that this fresh wave of infection is being driven by the increasing incidence of the COVID-19 Delta variant-the most transmissible strain of the virus yet to emerge worldwide, which first originated in India. Its prevalence has been doubling every two weeks or so, and it has already become the dominant strain in the U.S., accounting for 51.7 percent of recorded cases as of July 3.
"It has doubled," Pino said. "And it will double next week if we don't do what we need to do." The doctor also disclosed that this new wave of infection is occurring almost exclusively among unvaccinated people.
"100 percent of the cases reported yesterday were among unvaccinated individuals," he said Monday. "More so, 100 percent of the deaths that we are reporting to you today, were among unvaccinated individuals. So, we can mask up, we can keep the distance, we can try not to talk about this, but the reality is that this is an unvaccinated pandemic."
"This is a moment of truth for our county," Pino continued. "The vaccine is effective; the vaccine is working; the vaccine is everywhere; and the vaccine is free. It's up to you to take it and make that decision."
Demings said that roughly 60 percent of all eligible Orange County residents have already received at least one dose of a vaccine, and 52 have completed their vaccination protocols.
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