OC Reports 203 New COVID-19 Cases, 1 Death
SANTA ANA (CBSLA) — The Orange County Health Care Agency Monday reported 203 newly confirmed coronavirus cases and one additional fatality, bringing countywide totals to 57,071 cases and 1,410 deaths.
As of last week, the county has a positivity rate of 3.5%, a case rate of 4.6 per 100,000 people and a health equity metric of 6.5%. To qualify for the orange tier, counties must have a positivity rate between 2% and 4%, a case rate between 1 and 3.9 per 100,000 and a health equity metric between 2.2% and 5.2%.
Moving to the orange tier would mean retail businesses could operate at full capacity instead of 50%, and shopping malls would be allowed to operate at full capacity, though common areas would have to remain closed.
Officials said they expected the county's positivity rate to drop back down to 3.2% Tuesday and the case rate to remain steady. Overall, county CEO Frank Kim said the numbers were remaining relatively stable.
"We know more and more schools are reopening for instruction in person, so the fact that we're holding stable with case rates is a positive sign," he said.
Chapman University, which had an outbreak among a few dozen students, reopened for instruction Monday, as did Santa Ana College and Santiago Canyon College in Orange.
There were 168 COVID-19 patients hospitalized Monday, up slightly from Sunday's 162, and 63 being treated in intensive care units, up from 59. More than 1 million COVID-19 tests have been conducted in the county, and 51,018 people have recovered from the illness.
Of those who have died in the county, 524 lived in skilled-nursing facilities and another 111 lived in assisted-living facilities.
(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)