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Orange County Officials Urge Residents To Get Vaccinated, As Area's Coronavirus Cases Are on the Rise Again

Photo: Danielle Prieur
Photo: Danielle Prieur

Coronavirus cases are ticking up again in Orange County as the Delta variant continues to spread among unvaccinated people. 

Orange County now has a rolling 14-day positivity rate of almost 6 percent. 

Dr. Raul Pino says on Tuesday there were 382 new coronavirus cases in the county, a new high since May 22.

Pino says it’s crucial that more people get vaccinated as the numbers continue to rise in the area.

“95 percent of our hospitalizations were among unvaccinated people. 95 percent of all deaths were among unvaccinated people.”

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Pino says the shots are a luxury in this country. 

“My mother is 85 years old in Cuba. My two sisters, three uncles and aunts in their 80s and I wish I could fly there and bring the vaccine to them and vaccinate my family. I can’t. They don’t have access to that. They don't have access to the good vaccines that we have. But we have it, and there are people who are refusing to take it.”

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The bulk of the new coronavirus cases in the county are in people between the ages of 15 and 34 who are unvaccinated.

Click here to find your closest vaccine.

Danielle Prieur covers education in Central Florida.