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Health Jun 18, 2022
| Photo courtesy of geralt/Pixabay
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Orange County’s COVID-19 infection rates have held steady and hospitalizations began trending downward this week although six more fatalities were logged, according to the latest data released by the Orange County Health Care Agency.
Hospitalizations dropped from 185 Tuesday to 178 Thursday. But the number of intensive care unit patients rose from 15 on Tuesday to 23 as of Thursday, in the latest data available.
The county has 28.1% of its ICU beds available, well above the 20% level when officials become concerned.
The county’s COVID-19 testing positivity rate increased from 13.9% as of Monday to 14% Thursday. The rate jumped up from 13.7% to 14.5% in the health equity quartile, which measures the communities hardest hit by the pandemic.
The county’s daily case rate per 100,000 people increased from 30.3 as of Monday to 31.3 Thursday on a seven-day average with a seven-day lag, and from 29.3 to 29.5 for the adjusted rate, also with a seven-day average and seven-day lag.
The county logged 3,114 more COVID infections Tuesday through Thursday, raising the cumulative case count to 589,234. The county also logged six more fatalities, raising the overall death toll to 7,082.
Four of the newly logged fatalities occurred this month, increasing June’s death toll to 12. One happened in May, increasing last month’s death toll to 32. April’s COVID-19 death toll stands at 31, and March’s at 86. One fatality was in February, raising that month’s death toll to 335. January’s death toll stands at 560.
The OCHCA provides regular COVID updates on Tuesdays and Fridays.
Of those hospitalized, 83.2% are unvaccinated, and 86.7% of the ICU patients are not inoculated, according to the OCHCA.
The case rate per 100,000 people for fully vaccinated residents who have received a vaccine booster decreased from 35.6 June 5 to 34.1 as of June 12, the latest data available show. The case rate for residents fully vaccinated with no booster went from 22.2 to 19.6 and the case rate for residents not fully vaccinated went from 32 to 30.3.
The number of vaccines administered in Orange County increased from 2,319,958 to 2,322,469, according to Tuesday’s data.
That number includes an increase from 2,180,765 to 2,183,577 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 decreased from 139,193 to 138,892 as officials continue to adjust to a new accounting of shots administered in the counties across the state.
Booster shots increased from 1,299,053 to 1,307,071.
In the age group of 5 to 11 years old, the number of children vaccinated increased from 91,544 to 91,953 versus 176,627 who have not been vaccinated.
