Scott Powers
Orange County on Thursday became the fifth Florida county to exceed 100 cases of COVID-19, with 110 cases being reported by the Florida Department of Health.
Elsewhere in Central Florida, Osceola County now has 42 confirmed cases; Seminole County, 37; Volusia County, 29; Lake County, 25; and Brevard County, 22.
Orange County’s caseload increased by 21, up more than 20%, since Wednesday’s 6 p.m. report.
Orange County also has had four deaths, which was reported Wednesday by Dr. Raul Pino, Orange County health director with the Florida Department of Health, though the data posted Wednesday had listed only two deaths.
Much of the increase in Orange County’s caseload may be due to the dramatic ramp-up in testing for the new coronavirus, with the opening of a second mass test site, at the Florida State Logistics Response Center on Orlando’s south side. Since Wednesday’s 6 p.m. report, 174 more people in Orange County were tested, for a total of 1,397.
In each of the other counties in Central Florida, the numbers of people who have been tested range from 295 in Brevard County to 625 in Lake County. In Lake, the number of people who have been tested for the virus more than doubled since the last report.
Statewide, Florida now has recorded 2,355 cases of COVID-19, including 2,235 Florida residents and 120 non-Florida residents, and 28 people have died of the disease.
The other counties that have more than 100 confirmed cases are Miami-Dade, which has the most of any Florida county with 616 cases; Broward County with 504 cases; Palm Beach County, 169; and Hillsborough, 142.
Orange and Osceola counties are about to go into mandatory, county-wide stay-at-home lock-downs, starting at 11 p.m. Thursday. In both counties, authorities have used emergency declaration powers to require people to stay at home unless they are traveling for essential business, which includes such things as buying food or medicine, seeking health care, or traveling to or from a long list of jobs that are considered essential.
