Orange County closer to lifting COVID-19 restrictions, officials say

Orange County could move to phase 3 soon, leaders say

Orange County is moving closer to the final phase of its reopening plan.

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. - Orange County is moving closer to the final phase of its reopening plan.

Officials say they are in a good spot when it comes to managing new COVID-19 cases.

There are two things officials are watching before they can make the move. They’re watching the positivity rate of new COVID cases and the percentage of the eligible population in the county that’s been vaccinated.

The bottom line, it looks like Orange County is close to reaching a milestone where officials will lift all mask-wearing and social distancing recommendations.

Right now, Orange County is in phase 2 of its 3-phase process to reopening. Just over 51-percent of all Orange County residents 16 and older have received at least 1 dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. That means the county has removed the recommendation to wear a mask outdoors and cut down on social distancing.

To recommend eliminating mask-wearing altogether, the county either needs to hit 70-percent of the eligible population getting at least 1 vaccine dose or the county needs to have a sustained 14-day positivity rate of 5-percent or below for 2 weeks.

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Health officials say that could happen in the next week or two because right now it’s at 5.2-percent.

"This week could be the first week that we are below 5-percent," Dr. Raul Pino said. "At the end of the week we’ll know if that is the case but following the trend everything has been below 5 for the last few days so the week should behave the same way."

Orange County is still encouraging people to get vaccinated.