SANTA ANA (CNS) - Orange County reported 287 new cases of COVID-19 and five more deaths today, raising the county's totals to 44,212 cases and 815 fatalities since the pandemic began.
Of the five deaths reported Tuesday, two were skilled nursing facility residents and two were assisted living facility residents.
The number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 in the county continued to decline, dropping from 414 Monday to 409, with the number of patients in intensive care units decreasing from 132 to 124.
The rate of county residents testing positive for COVID-19 decreased from 6.8% to 6.2%, below the state's desired threshold of 8%.
The county's case rate per 100,000 residents dropped from 109.7 to 106.4, which is far higher than the California Department of Public Health threshold of 25 per 100,000 residents.
The change in the three-day average of hospitalized patients went from -3.3% to -4.8%, which is lower than the state's threshold.
The county had 31% of intensive care unit beds available Tuesday, which is better than the state's 20% threshold. And the county's hospitals also have 56% of their ventilators available, well above the state standard of 25%.
The Orange County Public Health Care Agency reported that 560,104 COVID-19 tests have been conducted, including 6,282 reported Tuesday. There have been 35,421 documented recoveries.
Case counts had been up and down for about a week due to a backlog with the state's system, but OCHCA officials reported Thursday that their statistics were up to date.
As students are reporting back to school, Orange County officials are also keeping an eye on coronavirus cases among children. The state is allowing schools in grades up to sixth to apply for a waiver from all online learning.
As of Tuesday, 446 children up to 3 years old have tested positive for COVID-19, 617 children 4-9 years old have been infected, 468 between 10 and 12 have tested positive, 441 between 13 and 14 have contracted COVID-19, and 1,563 between 15 and 18 have tested positive.