The county reported 658 new coronavirus infections on Tuesday and registered another 40 deaths, increasing the number of cumulative cases to 243,163, and the number of deaths to 3,617. These figures reflect two days, as there were no updates on Monday for President’s Day.
Meanwhile, hospitalizations continued a downward trend, with 748 patients being treated for the virus in medical centers in the area, down from 790 on Sunday, with the number of intensive care units falling from 257 to 235.
The county has 15.3% of its available ICU beds, as well as 56% of its ventilators, according to the Orange County Health Agency.
“We haven’t seen a Super Bowl so far, so that’s good news,” Orange County CEO Frank Kim told City News Service.
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Of the 40 deaths reported on Tuesday, two were residents of a qualified healthcare facility and five were residents of an assisted living facility, bringing the total to 902 and 406, respectively.
Death reports are staggered because they come from a variety of sources and are not always recorded immediately.
The death toll for January now stands at 1,040, surpassing the previous record in December, with 859 deaths recorded for that month. This means that 52% of the number of deaths in the county since the first death on March 19, 2020 occurred in those two months.
The death toll for February is 26 so far.
The deadliest day of the pandemic in Orange County was January 5, when 63 people died. The second largest was on January 3, when 61 people died.
The county’s adjusted daily case rate per 100,000 people fell from 29.7 last week to 20.7 on Tuesday, and the seven-day average test positivity rate, with a seven-day lag, dropped from 9, 4% to 7.8%, which meets the criteria for the red level.
The positivity rate of quartiles in the county’s health capital, which measures cases in the most affected and needy parts of the county, fell from 12.4% last week to 10.7%.
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The numbers for the state color code level framework are updated on Tuesday.
To move from the less restrictive red level to the purple level, the county needs to improve to 4 to 7 new daily cases per 100,000 and a positivity rate from 5% to 8%, with a quartile of health equity of 5.3% to 8%. And the county would be obliged to maintain the values for two consecutive weeks.
Andrew Do, chairman of Orange County Supervisory Board Andrew Do, said that if trends continue, the “best case” is another three to four weeks before the county turns red.
By mid-to-late March, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine could be available, Do said.
“At that time, we could really make progress in reopening our economy,” he said.
Kim said the county has “one foot in the red and another firmly planted in purple.”
The county will open a new vaccine distribution site at Santa Ana College in Santa Ana on Wednesday. The county aims to distribute about 1,000 vaccines daily and up to 1,500 eventually, Do said.
Orange County has reached the state threshold of reopening kindergarten through sixth grade, but most schools in the county have already been opened for a combination of virtual and direct learning.
Anaheim Elementary School District intends to resume personal learning. 15th March. The Buena Park School District is gradually introducing personal training to begin on February 22nd.
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