SANTA ANA, Calif. (CNS) – Orange County’s COVID-19 hospital admissions stayed the same at 219 on Sunday, according to the latest state numbers.
The number of intensive care patients was 52 on Sunday, compared to 49 on Saturday.
What you need to know
- OC’s COVID-19 hospital admissions number stayed the same at 219 on Sunday, according to the latest state figures
- The number of intensive care patients was 52 on Sunday, compared to 49 on Saturday
- The district had 21.9% of its beds in the intensive care unit and 68% of its ventilators on Friday
The district had 21.9% of its beds in the intensive care unit and 68% of its ventilators on Friday.
The latest numbers come two days after local health officials reported 383 new cases of COVID-19 and three additional deaths, bringing the county’s total to 306,657 cases and 5,615 deaths since the pandemic began.
Orange County’s health department does not report case and death numbers on weekends.
Hospital patient numbers are part of a new normal, Andrew Noymer, an epidemiologist and professor of population health and disease prevention at UC Irvine, told the City News Service on Friday.
“We are now in a new normal where we are in the middle of a transition to endemic,” said Noymer. “We’re leaving the epidemic phase, where everything is chaotic, and moving into the epidemic phase, where it’s more like the flu.”
Noymer said, “200 hospitalized people will be the new normal for COVID for Orange County for some time.”
Noymer said vaccinating children ages 5-11 will have an “indirect” impact on the pandemic.
“It’s the right thing, but I don’t think we’re going to see any immediate impact on infection rates,” Noymer said. “But I don’t expect a big drop in cases next week. It’s more complicated.”
The district’s deputy health officer, Dr. Regina Chinsio-Kwong told reporters in a media call on Friday that she hoped that children receiving injections could encourage adults in their extended families to get vaccinated.
“And overall it will reduce the transmission and hopefully we can celebrate our winter holidays and be on the right foot in 2022,” said Chinsio-Kwong.
The number of fully vaccinated Orange County’s residents rose from 2,177,053 on October 28 to 2,190,754 last week.
That number includes an increase from 2,032,863 to 2,045,291 residents who received two-dose vaccines from Pfizer or Moderna. The number of residents who received Johnson & Johnson’s single-use vaccine rose from 144,190 to 145,463.
There are 185,936 residents who received a dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.
Children ages 5-11 make up 8% of the county’s population, Chinsio-Kwong said.
Weekly averages for COVID-19 cases and positivity rates in Orange County rose after several weeks of gradual decline last week, according to data released Tuesday by the OCHCA.
The county’s weekly COVID-19 case rate per 100,000 population rose from 6 to 7.2, while the test positive rate rose from 2.3% to 2.5%.
The county’s health equity quartile positivity rate – which measures progress in low-income communities – increased from 2.3% to 2.4%.
The fall rate among the unvaccinated has increased significantly, and a slight increase was also noted among the vaccinated, according to the OCHCA.
The case rate per 100,000 unvaccinated population was 15.7 on October 23 and rose to 17.5 on October 30, the latest data available. For fully vaccinated residents, it was 3.4 per 100,000 residents on October 23 and 3.6 on October 30.
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