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Orange County’s COVID-19 hospitalizations and positivity rates continue to decline as the death toll for past month neared 100, according to data released Saturday by the Orange County Health Care Agency.
The 97 deaths logged so far in August follows a July death toll of 124, the first month since February when the County last logged triple-digit fatalities.
The County logged 16 COVID fatalities on Thursday. Orange County, which now provides updates once a week on Thursdays, logged 24 fatalities last Thursday. The cumulative death toll is 7,405.
The death toll for this month so far is two. Of the fatalities logged Thursday, one was this month, seven happened in August, and two occurred in July. Four of the fatalities happened in June, raising that month’s death toll to 56. One happened in May, upping that month’s death toll to 36. One happened in April, increasing that month’s death toll to 34.
COVID hospitalizations have decreased from 195 last Friday to 145 this Friday, with the number of intensive care unit patients dipping from 25 to 21. The County has 139 ICU beds available.
Of those hospitalized 69% are incompletely or unvaccinated and 69.7% are similarly situated in ICU.
The County logged 1,923 cases, increasing the cumulative case count to 664,361.
The County’s test positivity rate is at 8.5%, and 8.1% in the health equity quartile, which measures the communities hardest hit by the pandemic. The daily case rate per 100,000 was at 9.4 on seven-day average with seven-day lag, and at 10.2 in the adjusted daily case rate per 100,000 on a seven-day average with a seven-day lag.
The positivity rate for those fully vaccinated with a booster dropped from 18.4 on Aug. 21 to 15 on Aug. 28, according to the latest data available. For those vaccinated with no booster the rate dropped from 11.5 to 9.3. For those not vaccinated the rate decreased from 22 to 18.2
The number of residents fully vaccinated increased from 2,346,825 last week to 2,348,277 this week, according to the OCHCA. The number of residents who have received at least one dose was at 207,190. The number of booster shots administered rose from 1,377,003 to 1,377,809.
The number of children up to 4 years old, who have received at least one dose stands at 8,838 with 4,042 fully vaccinated, which represents just 7% of the county’s population in the age group.
For 5- to 11-year-old children, 96,047 are fully vaccinated, about 41% in that age group. In the 12-to-17 age group, 76% are fully vaccinated.
