ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — It is a regional push to combat the coronavirus, with the focus on making sure everyone, from community members to businesses, do their respective art.​

“I think anything we can do to build awareness. And not only have awareness, but have people take action," said Laureen Martinez, who is with the Orlando Economic Partnership.

For the last month, Visit Orlando and the Orlando Economic Partnership worked on the Safer, Stronger Together campaign and are now launching it with Orange County. 

The campaign is the result of regional conversations conducted during a series of Economic Recovery Task Force meetings, said Martinez, the partnership's senior director of marketing and communications. The latest meeting was Wednesday.

The PSAs — billboards, TV and radio spots — all direct back to this website​, where visitors can find information and tools for individual community members and for businesses broken down in English, Spanish and Creole.

Among the offerings, downloadable flyers and art for face masks; other links direct small business owners to coronavirus testing sites and locations where they can pick up free personal protective equipment, or PPE.

“We’re asking people to essentially make a promise: make a promise to their neighbors, make a promise to the businesses in the area. And we’re asking businesses to do the same," said Martinez, continuing, "And that promise is essentially, 'I’ll follow the guidelines, work to decrease COVID in our community and we’ll all do our part to ensure it happens.' And it really does create some peer pressure, if you will, amongst businesses.”

Since the pandemic began, the basic advice recommended by doctors has remained unchanged: practice good hygiene, like hand washing, and staying home if one's sick.

The campaign also encourages the community to wear face coverings in public, a mandate now in Orange County and other places.

“We want people to follow the safety precautions, particularly now as we’re seeing the numbers of COVID cases go up in the community," said Martinez. "So this campaign, Safer, Stronger, Together, really counts on people to take those guidelines seriously to make sure they’re following them.”

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