Florida Department of Health Officer Raul Pino announced that the county has confirmed that two people have tested positive for the so-called UK variant of COVID-19.
Pino said that both cases were for residents who did not live within Orange County, but that both cases were detected via testing that occurred in Orange County. Pino stressed that even though the residents didn’t live in Orange County, that doesn’t mean that the UK variant isn’t active within the community. Pino said that at this time, there is no “concrete evidence” that an Orange County resident has contracted the UK variant of the virus yet.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the so-called UK variant “spreads more easily and quickly than other variants”, but says that there is no evidence that it causes more severe illness or increased risk of death.
While vaccines are being rolled out, only 5% of Orange County residents have received at least one dose, and Orange County is only allowing senior citizens, frontline healthcare workers, and residents of long-term care facilities.
At Walt Disney World, modified operations remain in place such as physical distancing, limited capacity, and mandated face masks. Disney has not announced when these safety measures will end.
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!
The more transmissible variants will rapidly become dominant here as they have in other countries. Current vaccines are somewhat less effective against all these variants. Natural immunity acquired after having the first variant appears to convey reduced protection against at least one of the new variants: In Manaus, Brazil, cases of a new Brazilian variant are skyrocketing despite 70% of that city’s population having already been infected with the older variant. More worrisome variants are very likely to arise.
Now is not the time to be visiting theme parks, particularly with Disney increasing capacity on indoor rides. The deniers and pooh poohers will of course continue their psychotic ravings as the U.S. death toll reaches and then surpasses 500,000.
Amen, Mike. Restoring and reintroducing truth and science into a population blinded by lies is such an uphill battle. Sad times in which we live to realize just how much people will ignore for the sake of backing wild conspiracy theories and denials. Stay safe.