Orange County

Leon is forcing its employees to be vaccinated or be fired. Meantime, Orange is requiring its nonunion workers to get the shots and Miami-Dade is mandating indoors masks in county buildings.

Orange County's positivity rate for the virus has tripled to 14% from about 4.3% a month ago. Mayor Jerry Demings also said the region's hospitals are approaching capacity.

Because of the recent case spike of unvaccinated patients, elective surgeries are deferred, visitors are limited and masks are required. But there is more than enough space and equipment to handle the increase.

Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings says he’d like to enforce a mask mandate but can't because an executive order by Gov. Ron DeSantis that outlaws local government restrictions.

Sarasota Board Chair Shirley Brown said the ruling also "makes clear that somebody is not to be harassed if they are wearing or not wearing a mask.”

Dr. Khaled Fernainy of AdventHealth says that vaccinated immunocompromised patients can still get very sick with COVID and even end up on a ventilator.

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

Officials say two adults and nine juveniles were taken to a hospital following possible overdoses at a behavioral center near Orlando.

Dr. Raul Pino says there are pockets of the Orlando-area Latino community that still aren't vaccinated for COVID and that access problems include the inability to take time off the job to get the shot.

Alvina Chu has been named interim director of infectious diseases for the Florida Department of Health in Orange County. She discusses her new role in an interview with WMFE.