COVID cases are rising in Orange County and across Florida, but one University of Central Florida epidemiologist says this shouldn’t be cause for concern.
The 14-day rolling positivity rate in Orange County continued to hover around 8.4 percent over the past week, corresponding with an increase in local cases and hospitalizations.
But UCF epidemiologist Elena Cyrus echoes other experts in saying these numbers are no where near previous surges and the dominant variant is less severe than previous ones.
Cyrus this means people who are at high risk of contracting the virus should continue to mask up and use other established COVID protocols.
“For those who consider themselves to be at increased risk or have a particular vulnerability, I’m sure they will be a little bit more vigilant than others,” Cyrus says.
Cyrus says the greater Orlando region continues to report some of the highest rates of COVID transmission in the country.
“You know, we may no longer be in a pandemic, because it’s not impacting every single country at the same rate. But we have still a local epidemic, which is more regionalized, and certainly for Florida and for Orange County we’re still one of the most at-risk geographical locations throughout the United States.”
This past week, Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical officer to President Joe Biden, said the nationis in a "transitional phase" of COVID, clarifying remarks when he told NPR the pandemic phase was over. Vaccinations and residual immunity were among the reasons given by Fauci.
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