Photo: Getty Images
SANTA ANA (CNS) - Orange County's COVID-19 hospitalizations and positivity rates saw notable declines, but another 19 COVID-related fatalities have been added to this month's and last month's death toll, according to the latest data released by the Orange County Health Care Agency.
The number of COVID-positive patients in county hospitals fell from 331 Wednesday to 299, with the number of those patients in intensive care declining from 68 to 63, according to the county.
The OCHCA reported 317 new positive COVID tests and 20 additional deaths associated with the virus Thursday, bringing its cumulative totals to 537,198 cases and 6,544 fatalities.
The county had 27.6% of its ICU beds available and 65% of its ventilators as of Thursday. Local health officials become concerned when the level of ICU beds falls below 20%.
Of those hospitalized, 84% are unvaccinated and 86% in an intensive care unit are not inoculated, according to the OCHCA.
``We're not all the way back free of Omicron,'' Orange County CEO Frank Kim told City News Service. ``But the case rates are under 20 and test positivity is below 5%, and the hospitalizations are dropping quite rapidly.''
Kim said the same drop was seen in South Africa, but he has asked his health officials about having a ``fairly long tail'' here.
``Will we have a longer tail where we never get down to pre-Omicron levels?'' Kim wondered. ``I don't know. The good news is that we're through the surge and the state is asking further action to reduce some of their health and safety measures, but I think we need to be cautious. I don't want to be alarmist, but we don't know what the future holds.''
Kim said it was important to keep the COVID-19 response ready for any future surges.
``We have to ensure there's scalability quickly if we face another surge,'' Kim said.
In another sign of improving conditions, Orange County board of supervisors at their March 8 meeting will consider a recommendation promoting deputy county health officer Dr. Regina Chinsio-Kwong to county health officer, taking that responsibility off the plate of Dr. Clayton Chau, who has had to be director of the Orange County Health Care Agency and chief health officer through most of the pandemic.
Of the deaths logged Thursday, nine occurred in January, 10 happened this month and one in September. The deadliest day so far this year was Jan. 21 when 26 people died from COVID-related symptoms.
The recently logged fatalities hiked up January's death toll to 469, and February's death toll so far to 90.
December's death toll stands at 107, November's at 112, October's at 136, September's at 200 and August's at 186.
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 1,600, ahead of December 2020, the next-deadliest with 986 people lost to the virus.
Of the deaths logged Thursday, one was an assisted living facility resident, raising the number of dead in that category to 670. The death toll for skilled nursing facility residents stands at 1,276.
Outbreaks -- defined as three or more infected residents -- decreased from nine to eight at assisted living facilities from Feb. 18-23, the most recent data available, and dropped from 12 to 10 for skilled nursing facilities.
The county's jails had 35 infected inmates Thursday, up from 34 on Wednesday, with the results of 218 tests pending.
The case rate per 100,000 people decreased from 16.2 Wednesday to 15.3 Thursday. The testing positivity rate dropped from 4.5% to 4.1%, and fell from 3.3% to 3% in the health equity quartile, which measures underserved communities hardest hit by the pandemic.
The case rate per 100,000 people decreased from 14.5 on Feb. 12 to 8.7 on Saturday for those fully vaccinated with a booster shot; from 17.4 to 10 for those fully vaccinated with no booster; and 30.1 to 17.9 for those not fully vaccinated.
The number of fully vaccinated residents in Orange County rose from 2,422,759 last week to 2,430,510, according to data released Thursday. That number includes an increase from 2,268,168 to 2,275,663 of residents who have received the two-dose regimen of vaccines from Pfizer or Moderna.
The number of residents receiving the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine increased from 154,591 to 154,847. Booster shots increased from 1,180,353 to 1,194,500.
In the most recently eligible age group of 5 to 11 years old, the number of children vaccinated increased from 77,055 to 79,858 versus 188,722, who have not been vaccinated. It's the least vaccinated age group in Orange County. The next-worst vaccinated eligible age group is 25 to 34, with 323,176 inoculated and 136,225 who have not gotten a shot.
The age group that has gotten the most booster shots is 55 to 64.