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Health Aug 05, 2022
| Image courtesy of the Orange County Health Care Agency
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Orange County’s COVID-19 most recent wave continued showing signs of slowing, but nearly all of the 21 newly logged fatalities happened in July, according to data released Friday by the Orange County Health Care Agency.
From Tuesday through Thursday, the number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 dropped from 274 to 271, and the number of intensive care unit patients dropped from 37 to 33.
Officials cannot determine how many of the hospitalized patients were admitted directly for COVID-19 or tested positive while being treated for another ailment.
But from July 1-10, 15 patients were admitted directly for COVID-19 who were designated as incompletely vaccinated or totally unvaccinated. Another five were vaccinated with no booster, and another four received shots and a booster.
According to the county, 71.1% of patients are incompletely vaccinated or totally unvaccinated. The percentage in intensive care is 72.1%.
The county has 22.2% of its ICU beds available. Officials become concerned if that level falls below 20%.
The county’s testing positivity rate decreased from 18.4% to 17.7%, and remained at 20.9% in the health equity quartile, which measures the communities hardest hit by the pandemic.
The county’s daily case rate per 100,000 people decreased from 35.9 to 33.4 on a seven-day average with a seven-day lag, and from 34 to 32.3 for the adjusted rate, also with a seven-day average and seven-day lag.
The county logged 2,864 more infections from Tuesday to Thursday, raising the cumulative case count to 643,585. There have been 21 fatalities logged Tuesday through Thursday, raising the overall death toll to 7,235.
Of the fatalities logged since Tuesday, all but two were in July, raising last month’s death toll to 74.
The OCHCA provides regular COVID updates on Tuesdays and Fridays.
The case rate per 100,000 people for fully vaccinated residents who have received a vaccine booster went from 44.2 on July 17 to 32.7 on July 24, the latest data available show. The case rate for residents fully vaccinated with no booster went from 27 to 19.8, and from 44.8 to 34.4 for residents not fully vaccinated.
The number of vaccinations administered in Orange County increased from 2,334,335 to 2,337,024, according to data released Tuesday. The county has also logged 206,349 residents who received one of two shots of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.
Booster shots increased from 1,356,048 to 1,361,118.
In the most recently authorized age of 4 and younger, the number of 301 fully vaccinated residents increased from 301 to 943 versus 186,290 unvaccinated.
In the age group of 5-11 years old, only about 35% are vaccinated.
In contrast, in the 12-17 age group, 68% are vaccinated and 32% are unvaccinated.
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