Orange County Reports 3,445 New COVID-19 Cases, Breaks Hospitalization Record Again
SANTA ANA (CBSLA) -- Orange County reported another 3,445 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, bringing the total case count to 119,822.
An additional 26 virus-related fatalities were also reported, raising the death toll to 1,760.
The county also broke its hospitalization record once again — which has become a nearly daily occurrence. As of Saturday, there were 1,601 patients hospitalized for COVID-19, a jump from 1,557 on Friday.
The county's COVID-19 ICU bed capacity is still at zero.
Prior to this month, the record for ICU patients in Orange County was 245 — which was hit during the mid-July surge.
County CEO Frank Kim expressed concern this week about rising case counts and hospitalization.
Besides increasing testing and setting up mobile field hospitals to help overwhelmed medical centers, Kim said "All you can do is implore people to change their behavior.''
He said hospital executives and doctors said they fear an even worse surge after Christmas.
"They're looking at the trend and they don't see the end of the tunnel yet,'' Kim said. "They're concerned. They're activating their surge plans. Several are requesting mobile hospital units and we're responding immediately.''
County officials received a bit of good news when it was discovered that the county received extra doses of the new Pfizer vaccine.
Some of the vials have extra doses,'' Supervisor Lisa Bartlett said. "So we're getting more doses than anticipated, so that's a good thing.''
(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)