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Orange County’s COVID-19 hospitalizations held steady compared with last week, but 28 more fatalities were logged over the past couple of months, the Orange County Health Care Agency said.
The 28 additional fatalities, increased the overall death toll to 7,936. Seventeen of the fatalities occurred this month, the first deaths logged in February. Nine of the fatalities happened in January, increasing last month’s death toll to 104. Two of the fatalities occurred in December, raising that month’s death toll to 149.
December is the first month with triple-digit deaths since the summer wave of infections. On two of the dates that month, 10 people died, marking the first time there were days of double-digit deaths since last February.
As of Friday, 187 people were hospitalized with a COVID-related illness in Orange County, with 29 of them being treated in intensive care, according to the latest state figures.
There were 181 patients hospitalized with the virus on Feb. 16, and that number was up and down through the week but was at 182 as of Wednesday. The number of patients in intensive care decreased from 22 to 19 during that same period.
Of those hospitalized in the county, 62.1% are unvaccinated or partly vaccinated. The ICU patients are 63.1% partly vaccinated or unvaccinated.
The number of residents fully vaccinated increased from 2,367,539 to 2,368,035. The number of residents who have received at least one dose is 226,401. The number of booster shots administered increased from 1,449,113 to 1,450,247.
The number of children up to 4 years old who have received at least one dose inched up from 18,643 to 18,736 with 11,909 fully vaccinated. Just 6.4% of the county’s population in the age group is fully vaccinated.
For 5- to 11-year-old children, 97,515 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 rose from 6.5% to 7.7% and increased from 6.8% to 7.5% 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 5.4 on Feb. 12, increased to 5.5 on Feb. 19. For those vaccinated with no booster, the rate went from 4 to 3.6. For those not vaccinated the rate went from 13.2 to 12.9.
The daily case rate per 100,000 went from 5.5 to 5.9 on a seven-day average with a seven-day lag, and from 5.5 to 6.2 in the adjusted daily case rate per 100,000 on a seven-day average with a seven-day lag.
The county logged 1,380 new cases of COVID-19, increasing the total since the start of the pandemic to 711,257.
The OCHCA reports COVID-19 data every Thursday.
