Orange County officials are reporting a significant plunge in Covid cases compared with January, when the highly contagious Omicron variant caused cases to surge.
The positivity rate in Orange County now is down to 6.4%.
That’s a big change compared with January 10th, when the positivity rate was 40.8%.
Hospitalizations also are down, and 76% of residents ages 5 and older have received at least one vaccination shot. Here’s Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings.
“All of these indicators tell me that we are in a much better place today than at the beginning of this year.”
The mayor says with numbers so encouraging he will relax a mask mandate for county employees, although employees in health and corrections still will be required to wear masks.
Orange County officials also say tourism development tax revenue is nearly back to where it was before the coronavirus pandemic began.
Orange County Comptroller Phil Diamond says tax receipts in January were $22.4 million.
“That is a 189% increase over January of last year. It is lower than December collections by $5.8 million.”
https://www.wmfe.org/cdc-masking-recommendation-lifted-for-most-central-florida-counties/197136
