Orange County's COVID Hospitalizations, Rates See Declines
SANTA ANA (CBSLA) - Orange County's COVID-19 hospitalizations and infection rates continue to decline, but another 26 COVID-related fatalities have been added to this month's and last month's death toll, according to data released by the Orange County Health Care Agency.
The number of COVID-positive patients in county hospitals ticked down from 299 Thursday to 295 as of Friday, with the number of those patients in intensive care declining from 63 to 56, according to the county.
The OCHCA reported 405 new positive COVID tests and 26 additional deaths associated with the virus Friday, bringing its cumulative totals to 537,603 cases and 6,570 fatalities.
The county had 23.4% of its ICU beds available and 64% of its ventilators as of Friday. Local health officials become concerned when the level of ICU beds falls below 20%.
Of those hospitalized, 84% are unvaccinated and 86% in an intensive care unit are not inoculated, according to the OCHCA.
"We're not all the way back free of Omicron," Orange County CEO Frank Kim told City News Service Thursday. "But the case rates are under 20 and test positivity is below 5%, and the hospitalizations are dropping quite rapidly."
Kim said the same drop was seen in South Africa, but he has asked his health officials about having a "fairly long tail" here.
"Will we have a longer tail where we never get down to pre-Omicron levels?" Kim wondered. "I don't know. The good news is that we're through the surge and the state is asking further action to reduce some of their health and safety measures, but I think we need to be cautious. I don't want to be alarmist, but we don't know what the future holds."
Kim said it was important to keep the COVID-19 response ready for any future surges.
"We have to ensure there's scalability quickly if we face another surge," Kim said.
In another sign of improving conditions, Orange County board of supervisors at their March 8 meeting will consider a recommendation promoting deputy county health officer Dr. Regina Chinsio-Kwong to county health officer, taking that responsibility off the plate of Dr. Clayton Chau, who has had to be director of the Orange County Health Care Agency and chief health officer through most of the pandemic.
Of the deaths logged Friday, 10 occurred in January, 16 happened this month. The deadliest day so far this year was Jan. 21 when 26 people died from COVID-related symptoms.
The recently logged fatalities hiked up January's death toll to 479, and February's death toll so far to 106.
December's death toll stands at 107, November's at 112, October's at 136, September's at 200 and August's at 186.
In contrast, the death toll before the Delta variant fueled a late- summer surge was 31 in July, 20 in June, 26 in May, 47 in April, 202 in March and 620 for February.
January 2021 remains the deadliest month of the pandemic, with a death toll of 1,600, ahead of December 2020, the next-deadliest with 986 people lost to the virus.
Of the deaths logged Friday, four were skilled nursing facility residents and four were assisted living facility residents, raising the death tolls in those categories to 1,280 and 675 respectively.
Outbreaks -- defined as three or more infected residents -- decreased from nine to eight at assisted living facilities from last Friday through Wednesday, the most recent data available, and dropped from 12 to 10 for skilled nursing facilities.
The county's jails had 35 infected inmates Friday, the same as Thursday, with the results of 173 tests pending.
The case rate per 100,000 people decreased from 15.3 Thursday to 14.9 Friday. The testing positivity rate remained at 4.1%, and ticked up from 3% to 3.3% in the health equity quartile, which measures underserved communities hardest hit by the pandemic.
The case rate per 100,000 people decreased from 14.5 on Feb. 12 to 8.7 on Saturday for those fully vaccinated with a booster shot; from 17.4 to 10 for those fully vaccinated with no booster; and 30.1 to 17.9 for those not fully vaccinated.
The number of fully vaccinated residents in Orange County rose from 2,422,759 last week to 2,430,510, according to data released Thursday. That number includes an increase from 2,268,168 to 2,275,663 of residents who have received the two-dose regimen of vaccines from Pfizer or Moderna.
The number of residents receiving the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine increased from 154,591 to 154,847. Booster shots increased from 1,180,353 to 1,194,500.
In the most recently eligible age group of 5 to 11 years old, the number of children vaccinated increased from 77,055 to 79,858 versus 188,722, who have not been vaccinated. It's the least vaccinated age group in Orange County. The next-worst vaccinated eligible age group is 25 to 34, with 323,176 inoculated and 136,225 who have not gotten a shot.
The age group that has gotten the most booster shots is 55 to 64.