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SANTA ANA (CNS) - The number of COVID-positive patients in Orange County hospitals has increased to 183, up from 172 the previous day, according to the latest numbers released by the state.
Of those patients hospitalized as of Saturday, 29 were being treated in intensive care, up from 24 on Friday.
On Thursday, the Orange County Health Care Agency reported 1,314 new cases of COVID-19 in its weekly update, increasing the total since the start of the pandemic to 712,571. The agency also logged 21 additional COVID-related deaths, boosting the death toll to 7,957.
Seven of the fatalities occurred in February, increasing the death toll for last month to 24. Eleven of the fatalities happened in January, increasing its death toll to 115. Two of the fatalities occurred in December, raising its death toll to 151.
A majority of people who die with COVID-19 are elderly or have an underlying health condition such as diabetes, heart disease or hypertension.
Of those hospitalized in the county, 61.9% are unvaccinated or partly vaccinated, according to the OCHCA. The ICU patients are 62.8% partly vaccinated or unvaccinated.
The number of residents fully vaccinated increased from 2,368,035 to 2,368,412. The number of residents who have received at least one dose is 226,100. The number of booster shots administered increased from 1,450,247 to 1,451,431.
The number of children up to 4 years old who have received at least one dose inched up from 18,736 to 18,828 with 11,997 fully vaccinated. Just 6.4% of the county's population in the age group is fully vaccinated.
For 5- to 11-year-old children, 97,545 are fully vaccinated, about 36.8% of the age group. In the 12-to-17 age group, 69.7% are fully vaccinated.
The test positivity rate rose from 7.7% to 8.1% in the latest numbers and increased from 7.5% to 8.5% 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 5.5 on Feb. 12, increased to 5.9 on Feb. 19. For those vaccinated with no booster, the rate went from 4 to 3.7. For those not vaccinated the rate went from 13.3 to 12.7.
The daily case rate per 100,000 went from 5.9 to 5.8 on a seven-day average with a seven-day lag, and from 6.2 to 6 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.