Orange County COVID-19 Cases, Positivity Rates Continue Downward Trend
SANTA ANA (CBSLA) — Orange County's COVID-19 case and positivity rates continued a downward trend Monday as hospitalizations appeared to stabilize.
The county reported an additional 169 COVID cases Monday and 21 more deaths.
The numbers brought the county's caseload to 248,881 and the death toll to 4,486 since the pandemic began.
The number of people hospitalized with coronavirus also decreased from 241 on Sunday to 233 on Monday, while the number of patients in intensive care dipped from 76 to 72.
Orange County CEO Frank Kim said the county's weekly statistics are looking "pretty good" but he'd like to see hospitalization numbers improve more.
"We've kind of stabilized," Kim said of hospitalizations. "I'd like to see that number come down."
As of Monday, the case rate per 100,000 was 4 with a positivity rate of 2.2% and a positivity rate of 3.5% for the underprivileged communities hardest hit by the pandemic, Kim said.
The updated metrics put the county's case rate just one-tenth of a point away from the red tier to the less restrictive orange tier.
As of Sunday, the county was in the red tier for case rate and in the orange tier for positivity percentages, Kim said.
"There's nothing surprising in the data," Kim said. "This is fairly consistent (in Southern California). People are starting to plateau in that red-orange area."
On Sunday, Orange County moved to the red tier, allowing for more customers at retail stores and the reopening of museums, movie theaters and indoor dining at restaurants at limited capacity.
(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)