ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida has hit a milestone this weekend becoming the third state to top five million COVID-19 cases.
Florida is trailing California and Texas, with 6.8 and nearly 5.5 million cases, respectively.
However, the U.S. Surgeon General said we’re finally nearing the peak for omicron cases, and while hospitalizations are expected to keep rising in coming weeks, overall numbers should begin trending downward soon.
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Department of Health data shows four out of every 10 people in Orange County are testing positive for COVID-19.
Most of these new cases in Orange County are coming from people between 25 and 44 years old.
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings believes without the current level of testing, the county would be at a crisis level, but he doesn’t believe we’ll be able to keep up with demand without more help.
Read: Coronavirus: Total US COVID-19 cases top 65M; Florida becomes 3rd state to top 5M infections
The county is still waiting on a request made weeks ago to the state for 100,000 tests, and Demings is not sure they’re going to show up.
“It does not appear that we are going to receive them. So, I don’t know. It’s still in a question mark category at this point. In fact, through our emergency management division, we requested a total of 500 at-home test kits that would cover the entire county with some of our community partners,” Demings said.
Until numbers go down significantly, the emphasis stays on testing and vaccines.
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Since mid-December, the majority of shots given have been booster shots. The second largest group is people getting their first dose.
“That’s encouraging news for us. This highlights the fact that people are getting their booster shots for additional protection, and that others are getting vaccinated against COVID-19, thus creating greater community protection here,” said Dr. Alvina Chu.
The county says about 73% of people eligible for the vaccine have received at least one dose and 89% of seniors over 65 have received their shots.
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