ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Orange County leaders confirmed Wednesday that there are at least 12 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 delta variant.
Mayor Jerry Demings and Dr. Raul Pino from the Florida Department of Health in Orange County made the announcement during the county’s 138th news conference on the pandemic since it began in March 2020.
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“None of the recent deaths were identified to have any of the variances that we know about it,” Pino said.
The county has seen five deaths from COVID-19 in the past week, according to the doctor. Despite that, Pino warned that the delta variant is likely to become the dominant variant.
“This one is going to be the predominant variant in a few weeks. And this cycle will happen — a new variant will come and will take over,” Pino said.
New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention projects the variant now makes up more than 20% of COVID-19 cases nationwide. Data also shows the delta variant made up 2.3% of COVID-19 cases in Florida for the two-week period ending on June 5. Data for the past two weeks from each state is not yet available.
Even with the more infectious variant in Orange County, the positivity rate remains low at 3.7%.
“Which is great news for our community, even though we’ve seen a slowdown in the rate of vaccinations, what we are continuing to see is low positivity rates,” Demings said.
The mayor added that about 57.34% of county residents 12 and older have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Demings also announced that the county’s testing and vaccination site at Barnett Park will remain in operation through the end of July.
“I’m pleased to announce that Barnett Park will remain open through July 31 for both of these services. We will continue to use some of our stimulus dollars to ensure that our residents have access,” he said.