Orange County Reports 162 New COVID-19 Cases, 10 Deaths
SANTA ANA (CBSLA) — Orange County officials reported 162 new cases of coronavirus Friday and 10 additional deaths.
The new numbers brought the county's totals to 1,316 deaths and 55,345 cases since the pandemic began.
Orange County Health Care Agency officials said they were pleased to see new daily cases under 200, which keeps the county in the red tier. To get to the less-restrictive orange tier the county will have to begin averaging closer to 130 daily cases.
Of Friday's reported fatalities, four were skilled nursing facility residents.
Since Sunday, the county has reported 30 COVID-19 fatalities, compared with 72 last week and 77 the week before.
Hospitalizations inched up from 172 Thursday to 176 on Friday, with the number of patients in intensive care rising from 62 to 64. The change in the three-day average of hospitalized patients decreased from 9.9% to 6.4%.
The positivity rate, which was reported each Tuesday, inched up from 3.1% last week to 3.2%, and the daily case rate per 100,000 people rose from 4.4 to 5.2, which is higher than the cutoff of 3.9 to qualify for a move from the red to the orange tier in the state's coronavirus monitoring system.
The OCHCA has reported 929,241 COVID-19 tests have been conducted, including 10,821 reported Friday.
Of the 55,345 cases, there have been 49,628 documented recoveries.
To qualify for the orange tier, the positivity rate must be 2% - 4%, and the case rate per 100,000 must be 1% - 3.9%.
Moving to the orange tier would allow retail businesses could operate at full capacity as well as shopping malls.
The orange tier also boosts capacity for churches, restaurants, movies, museums, zoos and aquariums from 25% capacity to half capacity. Gyms and fitness centers could boost capacity from 10% to 25% and reopen pools.
Family entertainment centers like bowling alleys and wall-climbing would also be able to open indoors to 25% capacity under the orange tier.
Meanwhile, a Los Alamitos High School student has tested positive as well as a staffer at Hopkinson Elementary School in the Los Alamitos Unified School District.
Orange County CEO Frank Kim said there is no evidence so far to suggest the student was infected at school.
"This appears to be a very normal type of infection that occurs as we re-enter the reopening and from what we can tell was not associated with an infection at school," Kim said. "`The good news is the individual was identified, we're engaged in testing and the student is isolated. That's the good news. The system is working."
Los Alamitos Unified School District was among schools that applied for and won a waiver to reopen classes for personal instruction for kindergarten through sixth grade. The high school students returned back to campus late last month.
(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)