Herd immunity may not arrive until after summer, Orange County officials said

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Health leaders said they don’t believe we will see any major changes to the COVID-19 pandemic until after this summer.

That’s how long they believe it could take to get anywhere near herd immunity.

Orange County has already vaccinated about 3% of its population, which is about 1.4 million people.

READ: Florida reports more than 19,500 new COVID-19 cases as state virus-related death toll tops 23,000

There are about 260,000 people over the age of 65 in the county.

About 59,000 vaccine appointments have been booked through Jan. 20, but the county doesn’t have that many doses yet, but they’ve been told to expect enough to cover that.

READ: ‘Such a competitive process’: County officials said they need help from the state to meet COVID-19 vaccine demand

They’re expecting to get about 40,000 dozes next week. And so far, they’ve done about 11,000.

READ: Florida has nearly half the known U.S. cases of COVID-19 variant, CDC says

Cox Media Group