During Deming’s State of the County address today at the Orange County Convention Center, Mayor Jerry Demings has lifted the local state of emergency restrictions as Orange County moves to Phase 3.

Phase 3, will begin tomorrow, Saturday, June 5th. 

This will lift all mask-wearing and physical-distancing requirements that were in place under previous emergency orders.

He indicated this decision was made based on the Orange County Department of Health indicating the 14-day positivity rate had moved to 5% or less and about 60% of the population has been vaccinated in the county.

Mayor Demings stated:

“Our 14-day positivity rate has been below 5%, which signifies we’ve well contained the virus within our community. And if we are vaccinated and the virus is contained, there really is no reason why we should not return to some sense of normalcy.”

Now this does not mean everyone can just stop wearing masks. The CDC still says that mask and social distancing guidelines for unvaccinated people should stay in place. Businesses can still require face masks.

People can still choose to wear masks even if they’re vaccinated.

Businesses like Walt Disney World can choose how to proceed with mask and physical distancing mandates.  Currently they are only mandating masks indoors or in lines for queues. But that could change as of tomorrow.

Let’s be honest here though. People aren’t going to wear them vaccinated or otherwise. They aren’t checking to see if you are vaccinated anyway.

Mayor Demings discussed the impact the pandemic had on the area and the positive turns the area has made since 2020. For example the unemployment rate is now at 5.6% where it was at a high of 22.6% last year.

He also indicated that the theme park and airport traffic is rising quickly as visitors return to the tourist centric area.

You can see the Facebook video of the meeting Here.

What do you think? Comment and let us know!

Source: My News 13