COVID-19 Hospitalization Rates Continue To Climb In Orange County Breaking Previous Record
SANTA ANA (CBSLA) — COVID-19 hospitalizations in Orange County continued to climb Friday to record levels as the death toll also rose.
As of Friday, 746 patients were hospitalized with COVID-19, up from 735 reported on Thursday — a new record.
The number of patients in intensive care units also jumped from 179 on Thursday to 195 on Friday. The highest number of patients in the ICU was set in mid-July at 245.
Meanwhile Friday, health officials reported 17 additional coronavirus fatalities and 1,234 new cases of the virus.
The reported deaths occurred over the course of the past couple of weeks as the death reports come from multiple sources. Officials say, however, that the recent rise in cases will inevitably lead to more fatalities.
This week, 26 deaths were reported, compared with 26 logged from Nov. 22 through Saturday.
The new numbers brought the county's caseload to 82,887 and the death toll to 1,603.
The key metric officials are eyeing is the percentage of ICU beds available in the Southern California region. If it falls below 15%, new restrictions in businesses kick in as part of a new stay-at-home order outlined by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The percentage of ICU beds available in Orange County stood at 20% Friday, up from 17% on Thursday.
As of Thursday, the Southern California region had 20.60% of its ICU beds available and 55% of its ventilators.
"We're all waiting for the other shoe to drop," Orange County CEO Frank Kim said of the regional ICU bed availability, which had not been posted as of mid-Friday afternoon.
Kim said officials noticed an increased demand for coronavirus tests on Nov. 4, which predicted this surge.
"Every single day we were increasing our testing numbers," Kim said. "People are signing up and coming to test because they have had signifciant exposure to someone with Covid that they're concerned about or they have symptoms."
(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)
