Orange County COVID-19 Hospitalizations, Positivity Rates Continue Downward Trend
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COVID-19 hospitalizations and positive rates in Orange County continued gliding down, according to figures released Tuesday by the Orange County Health Care Agency.
The number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 dropped from 224 on Friday to 220 as of Monday, with the number of patients in intensive care declining from 31 to 25. The county has 28.7% of its ICU beds available, above the level of 20% when officials grow concerned.
71.2% of hospitalized patients are either unvaccinated or only partially vaccinated. The rate in the ICU is 71.8%.
It is difficult to determine how many patients were admitted directly for COVID-19 from those who tested positive after admission for another illness, but from August 1–17, 122 patients were admitted directly for COVID-19 who were either incompletely or not at all vaccinated, four had received booster shots and five had finished the primary series of two shots, according to the OCHCA.
The county logged 1,664 additional infections, bringing the total number of infections since the pandemic started to 658,788. The county also logged six more fatalities, raising its cumulative death toll to 7,350.
As per kfiam640, the county’s August coronavirus death toll has increased from 20 to 59 since August 19 and from 109 to 117 in July. The last month the count had more than 100 deaths was in February when 347 died.
The OCHCA provides regular COVID updates on Tuesdays and Fridays.
According to the agency, the county’s test positivity percentage decreased from 14.2% on Thursday to 12.4% on Monday, and it decreased from 16.3% to 14.2% in the health equity quartile— which measures the communities hardest hit by the pandemic.
On a seven-day average with a seven-day lag, the county’s daily case rate per 100,000 persons declined from 20.6 to 16.9, and from 20.3 to 17.4 for the adjusted rate, also with a seven-day average and seven-day lag.
The seven-day case rate per 100,000 for fully vaccinated residents who received a booster went from 18.4 on Aug. 21 to 13 on Aug. 28. The rate for those fully vaccinated with no booster went from 11.5 to 7.9, and from 21.9 to 15.8 for not fully vaccinated residents.
According to the OCHA, the number of residents who have had their full vaccination jumped from 2,343,538 last week to 2,345,356 on Tuesday. There were 207,414 residents who had received at least one dose. The number of booster shots administered rose from 1,372,534 to 1,375,422.
The number of children up to 4 years old, who have received at least one dose stands at 8,738 with 3,152 fully vaccinated, which represents just 6% of the country’s population in the age group.
For 5- to 11-year-old children, 95,465 are fully vaccinated, about 41% in that age group. In the 12-to-17 age group, 76% are fully vaccinated.
