Officials: Virus is ‘coming back’

Orange County reported 128 new coronavirus cases Thursday from the day before, its most ever in a single day, and 25 more than it saw on April 3, the peak of the first wave of the pandemic.

Officials have warned for more than a week that the numbers were starting to trend up, but until Thursday stopped short of calling the data the beginning of a second wave.

“We’re on our way up,” said Dr. Raul Pino, the state health department’s officer in Orange County. “There’s no other way to describe it.”

In Seminole County, Orange’s suburban neighbor to the north, the message was even more grim.

“It is coming back, and it absolutely has the possibility of coming back with a vengeance,” said Dr. Todd Husty, Seminole’s medical director, while wearing a surgical

mask covering his mouth. “This is a big deal, and it’s getting worse. We were so close to zero [cases]. We were that close. And then we started opening up…This damn thing is opportunistic.”

Seminole hadn’t had a day with double-digit new cases in nearly two months, before having 12 new cases on Sunday, climbing to 29 on Tuesday and 34 on Wednesday.

The increase comes about a month after Gov. Ron DeSantis began to reopen Florida and on the same day he said public schools will reopen in the fall, though protocols could vary from county to county.

Officials in both local counties blamed the uptick on residents who are ignoring pleas to wear masks in public, especially indoors, practice social distancing and other precautions, which worked in slowing the spread of the virus when Florida was locked down in April.

Orange Mayor Jerry Demings as well as Seminole Commission Chairman Jay Zembower said their counties aren’t considering shuttering businesses or mandating residents to stay at home like they did earlier in the pandemic. Instead, they called on residents to recommit themselves to following CDC guidelines.

Seminole on June 5 lifted an order that required all businesses to make sure patrons and employees stood at least six feet apart.

“But if this continues to get out of hand, we have to take positive action to protect the community,” Zembower said.

While the percent of total coronavirus tests coming back positive in Orange and Seminole remains lower than the figure for the whole state, the doctors said the data still cause for concern.

In Orange County the cumulative rate is 3%, though the daily rates have been higher for four consecutive days, including Wednesday when the rate was 6.2%.

Seminole’s cumulative rate is 2.5% while the statewide figure is 5.3%.

“The good news is the overall positivity rate in our community is still low. It’s lower than when we shut down,” Demings said. “If you buy in to what we’re asking you to do, maybe we can avoid having to shut back down and shelter in place.”

Pino said people between the ages of 20 and 40 years old continue to account for more than 50% of new cases in Orange County between May 28 and June 10. The median age of people who are testing positive is 32.5 years old.

A potential driver of the resurgence: infected people who don’t show symptoms account for 21% of cases, a figure twice as high as the last time it was estimated.

The infection of a younger crowd could spare healthcare systems from being overwhelmed, as younger people tend to more easily recover from the virus.

AdventHealth and Orlando Health, the region’s two largest hospital systems, said Thursday evening they have the capacity to support the current demand, and haven’t seen any recent spikes in hospitalizations.

Husty, the medical director in Seminole, said it is “upsetting and very sad” that many people have stopped being careful.

“We know people are having parties and having block parties and not wearing face coverings,” he said.

While not showing a sustained increase like in Orange and Seminole counties, both Osceola and Lake counties are also seeing more cases.

State data shows Lake County had 14 cases reported on Wednesday – more than the prior three days combined. Osceola County had three straight days of double-digit new cases while having only two prior such days in the past month.

“We’ve been through hell for several months now and I don’t think any of us want to go back,” Demings said. “I think it’s really important that going forward we don’t forget we’re living in the time of a pandemic and it has its challenges … and it has its threats to our healthcare.”

As officials continue to warn people to take care of their own health, they are also still contending with the financial devastation brought by the first wave.

Orange County will again begin taking applications for family assistance grants at 8 a.m. Monday through its online application portal at ocfl.net/orangecares.

The portal was open Monday and Tuesday mornings for a short time – less than four minutes by some accounts – before it was overwhelmed.

More than 50,000 people tried to access the site Tuesday to apply for $1,000 grants available from more than $36 million in federal aid, but only 3,501 applicants completed the process.

The mayor said the county has tweaked its application system again to distribute the money faster. The dollars will now go directly to applicants rather than to their landlords or utility companies on their behalf.

“Be patient,” Demings said. “At this point, it’s not a lack of money … It’s just the process.”