Orlando residents have asked to limit water consumption to help COVID-19 patients – CBS Miami

ORLANDO (CBSMiami / AP) – Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer urges residents to conserve water due to the recent increase in hospitalizations related to COVID-19.

How are they connected?

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The Orlando Utility Commission treats the city’s water with liquid oxygen, and supplies typically used for water treatment have been diverted to hospitals for patients with the virus.

The city-owned utility typically runs 10 trucks of liquid oxygen per week, but its supplier recently said that could be reduced to five to seven trucks per week to accommodate hospitals.

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“Nationally, the demand for liquid oxygen is extremely high because the priority of its use is to save lives,” the mayor said in a statement. Facebook post Friday.

Residents are asked to immediately limit watering their lawns and landscapes, take short showers, fix leaky faucets and toilets, stop washing their vehicles and perform “non-critical activities. »Like pressure washing, municipal service says in a notice.

The OUC said it is “difficult to determine” how long liquid oxygen shortages will last, “as this is linked to the number of COVID-19 patients being treated in hospitals with oxygen.” When those hospitalizations decrease, the supply of liquid oxygen will likely increase, according to the utility company.

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(© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All rights reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)