APOPKA, Fla. – Two Central Florida counties are increasing coronavirus testing after the state reported a surge in positive cases over the last week.
Early Monday, testing began in Orange County at the Farmworker Association near Apopka and outside Winter Springs High School in Seminole County. Both are the first of several free pop-up community test sites scheduled to open this week.
No symptoms or other criteria are necessary for testing at the new Apopka site but appointments are required. To schedule an appointment, click here.
The same goes for the testing happening in Seminole County. Click here for an appointment.
On Monday, the state reported more than 2,900 new cases, down from a one-day record of 4,049 cases on Saturday.
Both Seminole and Orange County reported dozens of new cases Monday. Seminole County saw an increase by 96 positive cases Monday and Orange County reported 243 new cases.
Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke about the upward trend during a recent news conference and credited the increase to mostly young and healthy individuals.
“Now, what we’ve seen basically concurrent with the rise of cases has been a decline in the median age of the people who are testing positive,” DeSantis said.
The median age of a positive coronavirus case in Florida is 37 as of last week, according to the Department of Health. In Orange, Duval, Broward and Hillsborough counties the median age is between 29-33.
With cases trending younger, the governor said hospitalizations have remained low across the state.
"We have far fewer COVID patients in the ICU today than we did in April statewide in the state of Florida," DeSantis said.
To combat the increase in younger infections, the governor said the state’s health department would conduct more outreach to encourage people to follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.
“I think that we’ve started to see you know some erosion in the social distancing from probably some of the younger population,” DeSantis said, adding in response, “The Department of Health is going to be launching some public service announcements, reminding folks of some of the things that you can do, I mean if you’re just a normal, healthy, younger individual doing things like frequent hand washing and sanitation, staying home, social distancing and wearing a mask.”
For information on Seminole County’s newest testing sites, click here.
For details on Orange County’s newest sites, click here.