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SANTA ANA (CNS) - Orange County's COVID-19 hospitalizations and case rates continued a downward trend today, but January's death toll continued to rise with 25 more fatalities logged.
All but one of the deaths reported Tuesday occurred in January, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency. The first fatality for February was also logged, with a death on the first day of the month.
January's death toll increased to 230. The last time the county had a month reach that high a number was March of last year, with 202 fatalities.
The number of COVID-positive patients in county hospitals slipped from 620 on Monday to 619, with the number of patients in intensive care ticking up from 123 to 125.
The county had 19.4% of its ICU beds available and 60.6% of its ventilators as of Tuesday. Local health officials get concerned when the level of ICU beds falls below 20%.
Of those hospitalized, 84% are unvaccinated and 87% in ICU are not inoculated, the OCHCA said.
The county also reported 309 more infections Tuesday, raising the cumulative total to 527,380 since the pandemic began. The county's cumulative death toll increased to 6,205.
Outbreaks -- defined as three or more infected residents -- decreased from 36 to 31 at assisted living facilities from Feb. 2 to Feb. 7, the most recent data available, and ticked up from 24 to 25 for skilled nursing facilities.
The county's jails had 71 infected inmates as of Tuesday, down from 137 on Monday with the results of 142 tests pending.
The county's adjusted daily new case rate per 100,000 residents dropped from 65.9 on Monday to 58.2 Tuesday. The testing positivity rate dropped from 11.8% to 11.3% and fell from 10.2% to 9.5% in the health equity quartile, which measures underserved communities hardest hit by the pandemic.
The case rate per 100,000 people decreased from 72.6 on Jan. 22 to 38.5 on Jan. 29 for residents who were fully vaccinated with a booster shot; from 134.8 to 62 for those fully vaccinated with no booster; and 207.2 to 92.9 for those not fully vaccinated.
Jan. 11 has been the deadliest day so far last month with 14 fatalities. That tops the deadliest day during the summer surge by one. The deadliest day so far during the pandemic was Jan. 2, 2021, when 71 people succumbed to COVID-related causes.
December's death toll stands at 103. November's death toll stands at 112 and October's at 135.
September's death toll stands at 198, while August's remained at 184.
In contrast, the death toll before the Delta variant fueled a late- summer surge was 31 in July, 20 in June, 26 in May, 47 in April, 202 in March and 620 for February. January 2021 remains the deadliest month of the pandemic, with a death toll of 1,598, ahead of December 2020, the next-deadliest with 985 people lost to the virus.