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SANTA ANA (CNS) - The number of people hospitalized with a coronavirus infection in Orange County dropped by 23 to 325, according to the latest state data released Saturday.
Of those patients, 31 were being treated in intensive care, down from 34 the previous day.
The county's overall COVID metrics remained relatively flat this week, but the death toll for this month eclipsed last month so far, according to data released Thursday by the Orange County Health Care Agency.
The OCHCA logged 3,269 new cases of COVID-19, hiking the cumulative total to 697,429. The agency logged 24 more fatalities, increasing the overall death toll to 7,674. All but one of the fatalities occurred this month, increasing December's death toll to 46. One of the fatalities occurred last month, increasing November's death toll to 42.
The test positivity rate went from 13.4% to 13% and decreased from 14.1% to 13.7% in the health equity quartile, which measures the communities hardest hit by the pandemic.
The daily case rate per 100,000 decreased from 14.7 the previous week to 14.1 on a seven-day average with a seven-day lag, and went from 15.9 to 15 in the adjusted daily case rate per 100,000 on a seven-day average with a seven- day lag.
The OCHCA reports COVID data every Thursday.