Orange County seeing decline in new COVID-19

Orange County flattening coronavirus curve

Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings says there appears to be a decline in new cases of COVID-19 and that data shows the county peaked about a month ago.

ORLANDO, Fla. - The latest numbers from the Florida Department of Health seems to indicated that Orange County is seeing a decline in new coronavirus cases.

According to Health Administrator for the Florida Department of Health in Orange County Dr. Raul Pino, there is a "flattening of the curve," with a negative growth in cases over the last month.

"It is safe to say, that in the last five weeks, we have a sustained decrease in the number of new cases," Dr. Pino said.

Four weeks ago, Orange County had 273 new COVID cases. Last week, there were 61 new cases. The data implies cases in Orange County peaked about four weeks ago.

"Yes, we peaked. I think we mentioned two weeks ago we could be peaking," said Dr. Pino, adding after two more weeks of a continued downward trend, they were able to make that determination.

"We're taking the necessary steps to create the type of measured, strategic formula that gets our community moving forward," said Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer .

County leaders said they would like to see more testing before moving forward with reopening the local economy. They said that more mobile testing sites will be available next week.

"When businesses reopen, they will reopen with a whole new set of sanitary protocol in place and I think all of that will be designed ro reduce the probability that we'll have another surge of the virus in our community," said Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings.

As of Friday evening, Orange County had recorded 1,290 positive cases of COVID-19 since the outbreak began and 30 deaths.

The Florida Department of Health of Orange County will continue its mobile testing sites into next week. Some of the locations have changed, including adding a location in Apopka.

Residents of Orange County can secure an appointment for testing by calling the Department of Health’s Orange’s COVID-19 Call Center at 407-723-5004. The Call Center is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. each day. There is no criteria for testing and it is free.

Mobile Testing Dates and Locations: