OC Reaches Milestones As COVID Hospitalizations Fall Under 1K, Capacity Rises Above Zero
SANTA ANA (CBSLA) — Orange County reached multiple milestones Thursday when hospitalizations fell under 1,000 and the adjusted rate of hospital capacity rose above zero.
The number of people hospitalized with coronavirus dropped from 1,009 on Wednesday to 965 on Thursday while the number of patients in intensive care dipped from 310 to 298, according to the OCHCA.
The county's state-adjusted ICU bed availability inched up from zero Wednesday to 0.6% on Thursday, and the unadjusted figure increased from 12.1% Wednesday to 13% on Thursday.
"Obviously, my strong interest is not only that the hospital numbers come down, but that they'll have more capacity to do broader vaccinations," Kim said. "There will come a time when vaccine scarcity will not be an issue and that infrastructure takes time to set up."
The county has 51% of its ventilators available.
Meanwhile, the county also reported 779 new COVID cases and 42 additional deaths.
The updated numbers brought the county's cumulative caseload to 240,999 and the death toll to 3,493.
"The big thing we're waiting for is what Super Bowl gatherings did to us," said Orange County Supervisor Doug Chaffee. "We won't know that until midway next week. Otherwise, if this good news keeps happening, we might make some move out of the purple tier (soon)."
Orange County CEO Frank Kim said, "The testing positivity rate will get there in a few week if the trends continue."
Of the deaths reported Thursday, 11 were skilled nursing facility residents and five were assisted living facility residents, raising the number of deaths in those categories to 890 and 386, respectively.
The OCHCA also reported 18,924 tests Thursday, bringing the total to 2,836,621.
(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)
