COVID-19 vaccine site moves back to Barnett Park as cases drop

ORLANDO, Fla. - Orange County has moved its main vaccine site from Camping World Stadium to Barnett Park. 

It's open seven days a week, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Florida public health officials published data on Friday showing that since the previous Friday there have been 25,792 new cases of COVID-19. 

Each week has seen a steady drop since August 20th, when there were 151,789 new cases. The week also saw a 4.8 percent positivity rate. That's the sixth week of declining new cases and the seventh week of declining positivity rates in the Sunshine State.

Doctors say Florida's COVID statistics are moving in the right direction. 

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"People want this pandemic over and gone forever," said Dr. Jason Littleton, an Orlando physician, "so this is definitely great news."

That sits well with Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings. 

"When it's five percent or below for a sustained period of time, that's where we really, truly want to be," Demings said.

Demings says now is the time to focus on beating this bug. 

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"We have to run through the finish line here. If we relax too soon that creates an additional risk of seeing a new surge of the virus within our community and none of us wants that."

Dr. Littleton says vaccinated and unvaccinated people feeling COVID-19 symptoms should definitely get tested for the virus. He also advises people to check their antibody levels to see if the vaccine’s effectiveness may be waning. 

"Someone who received the vaccine earlier on may want to do that to see if they need to arrange an additional shot, in this case the booster," he said. "Obviously the booster isn't available to everybody right now."