One of every five people tested Sunday in Orange County was infected with COVID-19.
The 21.4% positivity rate Sunday was the highest this calendar year, a sign the pandemic is worsening here as it is in most of Florida.
That’s what health officials told Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings’ Economic Recovery Task Force Monday.
When his hand-picked panel last met — July 21, 2020 — the county had 23,584 cumulative COVID-19 infections, which worried him then.
“It’s a bad number,” Demings said at that time.
It’s a lot worse now, the 50-member advisory group heard Monday inside the Varsity Club at Camping World Stadium.
The county has had 165,000 cumulative cases and over 1,400 COVID-19 deaths, about a seven-fold increase from July 2020.
The panel, representing a wide range of public and private interests, including area hospitals, theme parks, hotels and small businesses, offered a range of ideas for lowering infections and boosting vaccinations, including requiring shots as a condition of employment and paying workers incentives.
“The goal is to keep our businesses open, but do so in a safe manner, the safest manner possible,” Demings said.
The summit began with somber health data. Six weeks ago, the county had a rate of 52 COVID-19 infections per 100,000 residents — its best figure since COVID-19 testing began last year. But now the rate is 511 infections per 100,000 people — its worst to date, said Dr. Raul Pino, the state’s health officer in Orange County.
“We are going in the wrong direction at this point,” Pino said.
Dr. Vincent Hsu of AdventHealth said about 40% of inpatient admissions in the system’s Central Florida hospitals are COVID-19 related; 30% of intensive care unit admissions are due to COVID-19; and 125 patients are on ventilators. Sequence sampling of inpatient and ICU cases show the vast majority are likely the fault of the delta variant, an aggressive and super-contagious strain of the virus.
He cited scientific models which predict more hospitalized COVID patients for “at least another couple of weeks.”
“We just do not see any immediate relief,” Hsu said.
Nor does Ed Torres, Orange County utilities director, who said sampling of wastewater shows a 924% increase in COVID-19 in the flow.
The county began monitoring the waste stream in May for fragments of the virus shed by infected people into waste flushed into the sewers.
Torres said the level of COVID-19 viral components detected in sewage has been climbing steadily since the Fourth of July holiday — and the highest concentration that he’s ever recorded came this weekend from samples on the east side of the county.
The mayor’s panel played a key role in helping Central Florida businesses re-open last year, establishing safety guidelines and protocols to protect workers and customers. Demings asked the group he called “thought leaders” to help find a way to persuade people to get vaccinated.
The task force reviewed and then added their collective stamp of approval last year to re-opening plans for Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando, SeaWorld Orlando and more than a dozen other attractions. They also helped persuade Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to let barbershops and hair salons re-open in May 2020 when he left them out of an executive order.
Some business leaders said they’ve offered employees cash to get vaccinated. Others expressed frustration over vaccine hesitancy.
“I think we’re at the point where we need to educate those non-vaccinated employees to get vaccinated,” said Jesse Martinez, general manager of the Alfond Inn, a boutique hotel in Winter Park.
The Walt Disney Co., which Friday informed all salaried and non-union hourly employees in the U.S. that they must be inoculated by the end of September, is doing “a lot of vaccine education,” said task force panelist, Maribeth Bisienere, vice president of operations at Walt Disney World Resort.
“Although nothing about the last year and a half has been easy, I would say that some of these decisions have been easier by us staying within our core values of safety first,” she said. “It’s been very critical that we explain the ‘why’ behind these decisions…It’s been a lot of communication with all of our cast and our leaders so that they’re armed with the understanding of why we’ve done what we’ve done and how we will help them.”
Demings said the county will continue to push citizens to take the vaccine health officials insist will protect them.
“We can dispel misinformation with factual information…but despite our best efforts there may be some who just will not do it,” he said.
shudak@orlandosentinel.com; rygillespie@orlandosentinel.com
