WESH 2 News has obtained the latest statewide COVID-19 numbers.Most of the categories are trending downward, but with more than 53,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic, precautions are still important.Seminole County’s emergency manager monitors the statistics closely, so he can evaluate the efforts to keep people as safe as possible. "Our numbers compared to June are still bad, but when you look at when we were at the height of the spike we are starting to see a lot of improvement," Seminole County Emergency Manager Alan Harris said. Statewide, the number of newly reported cases dropped for the fourth straight week. There were a total of 54,000 new infections in Florida, compared to 74,000 one week earlier.The positivity rate is also showing improvement. Just over 8.5%, compared with 11% a week ago. The first time statewide positivity has been less than double digits in two months." Our current cases by day are decreasing, our positivity rate is decreasing, so we are trending in the right direction. Still a high number, but we're trending in the right direction," Harris said. Even with a downward trend, the community still is considered to have a high transmission rate."Thinking back to June 13th, when we just had 20 cases reported on that day, and under 5% positivity rate for the week, we're not there yet," Donna Walsh, Florida health official, said. Even with improvement locally, Seminole County had 1,000 new cases over the week and positivity is still more than 10%, double the 5% positivity goal.There were 355 deaths statewide this week, 30 fewer than a week ago. But since deaths from COVID-19 take time to determine, more than 2,300 deaths were added since the last report."Our fatality count continues to increase, but those are fatalities from over the past several weeks. We knew that was going to happen with the numbers that were spiked, and those ended up in fatalities and we're seeing those now," Harris said. He says vaccines, masks and social distancing still matter, and people that are ill should stay home.