Orange County’s COVID-19 cases are going up again. Last week the county saw 730 new cases- a 202% increase over the week before.
Mayor Jerry Demings said the county will double down on its messaging to encourage people to adhere to social distancing and sanitary guidelines. He said mask wearing may become mandatory for certain businesses.
“We want to have primarily voluntary compliance. But where individuals are not complying, I want to be a bit realistic about our ability to do enforcement. And I really don't want law enforcement put in that position.”
Demings said he’s worried the second spike of cases could exceed the first peak in April.
The health officer for the Florida Department of Health in Orange County, Dr. Raul Pino, said he’s asking for more staff to do contact tracing.
“You have to interview every single person that you can get in touch with to be able to establish connection between this individual but also to be established connection at this source, can you identify a common source for this group of individuals.”
Pino said 22 people are working in the county’s contact tracing units. He’s asking for funding to hire another 20 staff.