ORLANDO, Fla. – While COVID-19 numbers remain high in Central Florida, hospitalizations are going down at some hospitals.

And people are still coming by the dozens to get tested for COVID-19 at Orange County’s Barnett Park. 

“I got a cold, but I sprayed perfume this morning and I couldn’t smell anything, so I’m just  wondering like I don’t if it’s a cold that I can’t smell or something else so that’s why I came to get tested,” Jadel Alvarez said. 

He works in a furniture store where he interacts with a lot of different people each day. 

“I’m exposed to a lot of people so that’s why I also want to get tested just in case,” he said. 

Alvarez has seen how bad things have been in Orange County as far as case numbers and hospitalizations for the past couple months. 

“I was just wondering when is this all going to end you know? We’ve been at it for a while now and I’m just wondering when this is finally gonna start to decrease and get back to normality,” he said. 

Cases and hospitalizations remain high in the Sunshine State. 

According to the U.S. Department of Heath and Human Services, 90% of ICU beds in Florida are occupied with 43% of them being from COVID-19 patients.  But there’s hope on the horizon Central Florida.

AdventHealth reports it's seen a decrease of about 550 COVID-19 patients since the peak in August. 

“We’ve effectively dropped about 30-40%, and compared to our previous surge, we’re at our previous surge numbers at about a 1,000, so this was the highest surge as far as volume is concerned, but we have seen a drop and we’re on the back end of that peak,” said Dr. Sanjay Pattani, Associate Chief Medical Officer of AdventHealth Orlando. 

AdventHealth has moved its hospitals back down to yellow status, meaning they’ll be able to resume more elective surgeries. 

Alvarez says he hopes this means the surge could soon be over in Central Florida.  

“That’s a good sign! I hope things do get better, and things keep progressing,” he said.