‘We are in crisis mode’ Orange County Mayor Demings urges vaccinations as virus cases surge
The Associated Press
Orange County mayor Jerry Demings briefs county residents on the status of Hurricane Dorian during a press conference at the Orange County Administration building in Orlando, Fla. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel via AP) FILE - This May 4 2021 file photo shows Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, center, speaks during a news conference at West Miami Middle School in Miami. Several states scaled back their reporting of COVID-19 statistics this July 2021, just as cases across the country started to skyrocket, depriving the public of real-time information on outbreaks, cases, hospitalizations and deaths in their communities. (Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald via AP, File)
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The mayor of the county that is home to Florida’s theme park mecca says they’re “in crisis mode” over a soaring number of COVID-19 infections.
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said Monday that Florida has accounted for a fifth of the nation’s new infections.
The county that’s home to Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando Resort is seeing about 1,000 new cases a day.
Demings says area hospitals are approaching capacity.
Orange County’s positivity rate for the virus has tripled to 14% from about 4.3% a month ago. Demings said central Florida hospitals are approaching capacity.
