Orange County Mayor recommends return to wearing masks in some settings

Orange County mayor recommends return to masks while indoors

Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings is recommending that residents return to wearing masks when indoors in a crowded space, as the county is seeing a resurgence in COVID-19 cases. Many of the cases are related to new variants are being reported among the unvaccinated.

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. - Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings says it his official recommendation that people go back to wearing masks indoors in crowded places where they cannot socially distance even if they are vaccinated.

The county is seeing its infection numbers rise again, according to health officials, with the 14-day rolling positivity rate now at almost 8%, which is considered high-risk for transmission by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Mayor Demings says that at this point he doesn't want to reinstate a mask mandate but he will keep watching the number of COVID-19 cases and adjust the recommendation as it's needed.

Demings says that on Sunday, 406 new COVID-19 cases were reported to the county and 100% of those people were unvaccinated.

Medical officials in the county say in order for us to keep moving forward and see the infection rates go down, residents that aren't vaccinated should get vaccinated.

Watch FOX 35 Orlando for the latest Central Florida news.