ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Coronavirus case numbers just in Orange County have now topped 100,000 cases.

Across the state, the Florida Department of Health has reported 1.6 million cases so far. As the holiday-case surge continues its slow drop-off, the Sunshine State is still reporting thousands of new cases every day, including more than 8,000 new cases just on Wednesday alone.

Dr. Rebecca Gomez, a hospitalist with AdventHealth Orlando, has spent the past 10 months working on the frontlines to fight COVID-19. 

Even as the vaccine rollout continues, Gomez said it is still very important for people to maintain social distance and wear masks, stressing that while the vaccine is very effective, it is not 100% effective and measures must be taken to prevent further spread.

Gomez said there are more than 700 patients hospitalized with coronavirus right now in AdventHealth’s Central Florida division. That is a slight decrease from earlier this week and Gomez said it is an encouraging sign following recent case surges.

“It doesn’t seem to be going up anymore, plateauing means we’re discharging just as many patients as are coming in. So we’re not seeing a huge drop at this time but maybe seeing the end of that spike and seeing that curve coming down,” said Gomez, who is the AdventHealth Orlando internal medicine department chair.

As the Moderna and Pfizer vaccine rollout continues across the Sunshine State, AdventHealth stated it has distributed 37,000 doses, exhausting its initial supply from the state.

Gomez says she has received her vaccine and encourages Floridians to do the same when it becomes more available but stresses that it would not immediately bring an end to the pandemic.

Studies are still being done to see if asymptomatic transmission of COVID-19 is possible for those who have received their vaccine, Gomez said.

Even 10 months into the pandemic, doctors say cutting down on COVID-19 transmission will come down to people taking extra care until case numbers are under control.

“This virus is really very easy to spread, even when you’re taking good precautions. The more people you’re around, the greater the risk that you or someone else is going to get sick. That’s the biggest thing you can do. It’s hard, it’s been a long time but we need to keep doing it in order to stay on top of the curve and keep it as low as possible until vaccination becomes more widely available,” Gomez said.

So far, close to 1.7 million Floridians have received at least one dose of vaccine.