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SANTA ANA (CNS) - The number of COVID-positive patients in Orange County hospitals dropped by 12 to 166, according to the latest state figures released Saturday.
Of those patients, 17 were being treated in intensive care, down from 21 the previous day. Some patients were hospitalized for other reasons and learned they had COVID after a mandated test.
The Orange County Health Care Agency logged 1,443 new cases of COVID- 19 and 45 additional deaths linked to the virus this week, increasing the cumulative totals to 708,451 cases and 7,893 fatalities.
The majority of those who die with COVID-19 are elderly or have underlying health conditions such as diabetes, hearts disease or hypertension.
Forty-two of those fatalities occurred last month, increasing January's death toll to 84. Three of the fatalities occurred in December, raising its death toll to 144. December was the first month with triple-digit deaths since the summer wave.
Of those hospitalized in the county, 62.6% are unvaccinated or partly vaccinated. The ICU patients are 63.7% partly vaccinated or unvaccinated.
The number of residents fully vaccinated increased from 2,366,484 to 2,367,020. The number of residents who have received at least one dose is 225,827. The number of booster shots administered increased from 1,446,607 to 1,447,774.
The number of children up to 4 years old who have received at least one dose inched up from 18,416 to just 18,534 with 11,640 fully vaccinated. Just 6.2% of the county's population in the age group is fully vaccinated.
For 5- to 11-year-old children, 97,431 are fully vaccinated, about 36.8% of the age group. In the 12-to-17 age group, 69.6% are fully vaccinated.
The test positivity rate went from 6.3% to 6.1% and increased from 6.3% to 7.1% in the health equity quartile, which measures the communities hardest hit by the pandemic.
The positivity rate for those fully vaccinated with a booster, which was 4.3 on Jan. 22, increased to 4.6 on Jan. 29. For those vaccinated with no booster, the rate went from 4.1 to 3.9. For those not vaccinated the rate went from 8.2 to 7.7.
The daily case rate per 100,000 went from 5.0 to 5.2 on a seven-day average with a seven-day lag, and from 5.1 to 4.9 in the adjusted daily case rate per 100,000 on a seven-day average with a seven-day lag.
The OCHCA reports COVID-19 data every Thursday.