SANTA ANA, Calif.—Orange County’s COVID-19 hospitalizations continued dropping, mirroring trends being seen in other pandemic metrics, according to the latest data.
Hospitalizations dropped from 282 Friday to 242 on Oct. 4, with the number of intensive care unit patients declining from 76 on Friday to 62. The Orange County Health Care Agency issues updates Mondays through Fridays.
The county has 24.2 percent of its intensive care unit beds available and 68 percent of its ventilators, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency (OCHCA).
Orange County CEO Frank Kim said Monday that all of the COVID-19 metrics were “still trending downward.”
As of Sept. 25, the county’s new case rate per 100,000 people was 3.6 among fully vaccinated residents, and 18.1 for the unvaccinated.
“I think hospitalizations are on a very slow descent,” Dr. Regina Chinsio-Kwong, deputy county health officer, said in a conference call with reporters Friday. “Overall, our case rates are coming down and our positivity, so we’re going in the right direction.”
Chinsio-Kwong said vaccinations are on the rise, likely due to mandates from the state.
The number of fully vaccinated residents in Orange County increased from 2,096,177 as of Sept. 23 to 2,115,536 on Sept. 30.
That number includes an increase from 1,958,145 to 1,976,227 of 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 increased from 138,032 to 139,309.
There are 197,514 residents who have received one dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.
Orange County is 71 percent fully vaccinated among those 12 and older who are eligible for the vaccine, Chinsio-Kwong said. Seventy-eight percent of the eligible population has received at least one dose, she added.
Including children who cannot get a vaccine, the county is 61 percent fully vaccinated, Chinsio-Kwong said.
“This is exciting news, but we still have a lot more to do,” she said.
The OCHCA reported 670 new cases of COVID-19 since Friday and eight additional fatalities, raising the cumulative totals to 298,575 cases and 5,444 deaths since the pandemic began.
All of the most recently reported deaths occurred in September, raising the month’s death toll to 81. The death toll in August was 157.
The death toll for July is 26, 19 for June, 26 for May, 46 for April, 199 for March, 615 for February, 1,580 for January—the deadliest month of the pandemic—and 976 for December, the next deadliest.
