The Florida county where the majority of Walt Disney World is located is now under a State of Emergency.
Walt Disney World
Yesterday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated their mask guidelines for vaccinated individuals in the U.S.. Today, Orange County, Florida Mayor Jerry Demings gave an update on the current state of COVID-19 infections in the community. The Mayor has signed an executive order declaring a state of emergency in an attempt to avoid another shutdown. The state of emergency will last 7 days.
UPDATE: The State of Emergency has been repeatedly extended over the past several weeks. As of the moment, the State of Emergency has been extended through October 27th. Stay tuned for more updates.
Mayor Demings said, “I will now urge our residents and visitors, vaccinated and unvaccinated, to wear a mask when in an indoor space with others.” When asked why the mask order is voluntary instead of mandatory, the Mayor cited the Florida state government, which he says is restricting the ability of local governments to issue mandates.
Former face mask sign
Mayor Demings also said he expects the theme parks to follow the CDC recommended guidelines, which right now. The CDC currently recommends ALL individuals should wear masks in public indoor spaces if they’re in areas of high or substantial COVID-19 transmission.
Face mask sign
When asked if the community was in crisis, the Mayor responded “yes.” Demings said they need to increase the rate of vaccinations and wearing face coverings.
Face mask
The Mayor said there are currently over 163,000 cases in Orange County, marking an all-time high. This includes over 1,300 new cases just yesterday. This time last year, there were around 27,400 cases in the county. He said the 14-day positivity rate is also at an all-time high at 15.58% — 6 weeks ago it was 3%. He also says they’re anticipating an increase in upcoming infections.
Disney World
Over 62% of people 12 and over in the county have at least one vaccination shot, but around 95% of people hospitalized in the Advent Health system with COVID are unvaccinated. Mayor Demings said Advent Health is concerned as this is the fastest increase in COVID-19 patients since the pandemic began.
Hollywood Studios
The Mayor said, “We want to keep our county, our theme parks, and other attractions open.”
Magic Kingdom
Mayor Demings says there is an internal order requiring Orange County employees to be fully vaccinated by the end of September. All Orange County employees are required to wear a mask indoors at O.C. facilities.
Former face mask signs
The mayor is asking other businesses to follow their lead, saying, “we’re pleading with our community to help us keep our businesses and economy open.”
UPDATE: On August 4th, Mayor Demings issued Executive Order 2021-25, extending the previous State of Local Emergency for an additional 7 days. Stay tuned for more updates. On August 11th, Mayor Demings issued Executive Order 2021-26 and extended the State of Emergency for another 7 days.
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My family and I are fully vaccinated and we all contracted Covid 19 last week in WDW. I am pretty sick and the rest of the family is pretty mild. It’s way too crowded. To you and your staff who work so hard …Please be safe
A vaccination does not mean that you will not catch COVID, but it will lessen your symptoms. Those who choose not to get vaccinated have made their own decision. I feel it is unfair for those of us who have gotten vaccinated (myself and my entire family) to have to wear masks and be penalized for those who have not. Let it be our choice whether to wear a mask or not. Also, COVID particles are 0.125 microns, cloth masks don’t filter micron particles this tiny.
This is my fear. I cant gauge what I should be expecting. I am scheduled for the last week of August. Should I worry about coming back with delta. Family of four adults vaccinated, 12 yr getting 2nd dose in a few weeks and 10 yr that cant get vaccine. We have trying to go on this trip for 2 years.
Dina thanks for sharing and I wish you a speedy recovery! I am considering canceling our upcoming trip. 🙁 May I ask did your family wear masks everywhere?
DIna, what vaccine did you have and how long ago? Were you PCR negative before WDW and PCR positive after? The CDC is now saying that the PCR test is unreliable. They also told us to trust the vaccines and now they are back tracking with the delta variant. Vaccinations are increasing too slowly due to this CDC inconsistency. We were going to vaccinate our children until we found out they will wear masks to school regardless of vaccination status.
Our next trip is end of September. There are six of us going. We made no park reservations and plan on spending the time at the resort pool. We booked a two bedroom villa, so we’d have sufficient room to stretch out and read a good book or prepare a meal in the full kitchen. We rented a car and can also do takeout from on or off property.
This is the polar opposite of what our past vacations were like. But these are different times, and you know what different times call for. If things continue to worsen in Florida, we may just cancel this trip and plan one for another time. It’s a pain, but what can you do.
This is something I dont understand. Vaccinated people CAN spread the disease and also can get sick. Why withdraw the use of face masks when more than half the population is at risk? And why remove social distancing rules from parks. For me it is a huge failure of the authorities (Florida and DW).
Additionally, it does not make sense to put rules such as “if you are not vaccinated wear a mask, if you are is optional”. Of course no one is going to wear a mask! Do you guys think it is a coincidence that cases increased when restrictions were lowered?
Too crowded + no restrictions = big fail
@Dina: Prays for your fast recovery.
Those that are vaccinated should not have to mask in my opinion. Those that have previously had covid should not have to mask in my opinion. The balance must make a personal decision not imposed by the government in my opinion.
This is all so ridiculous! I’m sick and tired of wearing freaking mask!
I hate to say this, but they need to stop the fireworks. People are crammed in like sardines.
@CT, Covid particles are very small but they don’t travel on their own and still get stuck in mask fibers and they ride on our breaths moisture droplets that cannot pass through a mask: https://youtu.be/wpfmQKZ-B_0
The vaccine doesn’t provide a shield like on Star Trek, it tells your body to make antibodies to fight it off when you are infected with covid which lessen symptoms and prevents death. Unfortunately the delta variant spreads faster and enough of it still survives even in vaccinated nasel passages to spread to others before the vaccinated persons antibodies can kill it off. We need to all vaccinate and mask until this thing is gone and before it mutates to even worse variants that may eventually become deadlier or vaccine resistant. We don’t want this mutating to something like a cold or flue viruses that has so many varieties they can’t make a vaccine that covers them all and requires new vaccines annually to keep ahead of them. Use common sense and get a vaccine, wear a mask and distance yourselves and let’s end this thing.
We canceled a trip which would have occurred Sept 25th – Oct 3rd. We had wonderful accommodations and plans but not willing to subject a 4 year old to possible exposure