31 Coronavirus Deaths Reported In Orange County, Thursday

ORANGE COUNTY, CA — Orange County Health Care Agency has reported 31 more coronavirus-related deaths and 153 new diagnoses of COVID-19. The new count leaves the county death toll at 1,391, with a cumulative case count is 56,436 since the pandemic began.

As of Thursday, 51 resident have died due to coronavirus. Last week, 54 coronavirus deaths were reported, down from 72 the week before and 77 the week before that. The latest death confirmations come from multiple sources such as hospitals, so the reporting of them are staggered, a Health Care Agency spokesperson says.

The last time the county reported double-digit deaths was Sept. 15, when 10 people died. The highest number of deaths announced in one day was 33 on Sept. 29, though those were staggered totals, a well. According to the OC Health Care Agency reporting site, the deadliest days since the pandemic began were July 31 and Aug. 3, when 19 people succumbed to coronavirus on each of those days.

Of the fatalities reported Thursday, 12 residents were not associated with assisted living centers while 17 were skilled nursing facility residents and two were assisted living facility residents.

Since the pandemic began, 770 residents of Orange County have died who were not residents of skilled facilities. Meanwhile, 513 of the county's fatalities involved skilled nursing facility residents and 108 resided in assisted living facilities.

Aiming for the Orange Tier in Gov. Newsom's blueprint to reopen California, Orange County CEO Frank Kim said the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will consider increasing spending on efforts to help improve safety at skilled nursing facilities.

Case counts that topped 200 on Wednesday was a concerning sign, as officials want to keep new cases under that mark. Kim said both metrics were "too high in case count and deaths." Thursday's count of 153 new cases was closer to the mark, though over the 130 daily that the county is aiming for.

If Orange County can stay at or below 130 new cases a day, that would vault the county from the second-most restrictive red tier to the orange tier of the state's four-tier economic-reopening roadmap.

The county has to remain under 225 cases per day to stay within the red tier, Kim said.

The positivity rate, reported each Tuesday, inched up from 3.2% last week to 3.5%, but the daily case rate per 100,000 people declined from 5.2 to 4.6, moving the county closer to an upgrade from the red to the orange tier.

County officials throughout the state are working with the governor's office and the state Department of Public Health to see if there's some flexibility that could be allowed when counties are close to moving up a tier, Kim said.

Under the state's previous reopening system, hospital capacity was a key metric, but that data is no longer considered in the new tier system, he said.

"If we can show we have good capacity to contact-trace and the hospitals have good capacity to handle any surges and testing remains below capacity, then could the state give us additional flexibility to get into a less-restrictive tier?" Kim asked.

Hospitalizations decreased from 165 Wednesday to 164 Thursday, while the number of intensive care unit patients increased from 60 to 66.

The change in the three-day average of hospitalized patients went from -3.3% to -2.2%. The county has 34% of its intensive care unit beds and 69% of its ventilators available.

To qualify for the orange tier, the positivity rate must be 2% to 4%, and the case rate per 100,000 must be 1 to 3.9.

Moving to the orange tier would mean retail businesses could operate at full capacity, instead of 50% as required in the red tier. Shopping malls could also operate at full capacity, but with closed common areas and reduced food courts, just as in the red tier.

Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes said when the county reaches the orange tier he will move to restore visitation for inmates. He canceled visitations in March at the beginning of shutdown orders due to the rapid spread of the virus.

According to OCHCA data, 970,212 COVID-19 tests have been conducted, including 6,623 reported Thursday. There have been 50,459 documented recoveries.

Dr. Clayton Chau, director of the OCHCA and the county's chief health officer, said increased testing can lower the positivity rate, but it can also lead to an increase in the case rate per 100,000. The state introduced a health equity measure, which launched last Tuesday, to help counties address high case counts concentrated within certain ZIP codes that include high-density housing and language barriers, among other issues.

Orange County got a head start weeks ago with its Latino Health Equity program, which raised awareness of coronavirus within hotspots in Santa Ana and Anaheim, Chau said. Positivity rates as high as 20% have fallen to single digits in some of those neighborhoods, Chau said.

Positivity rates as high as 20% have fallen to single digits in some of those neighborhoods, Chau said. There is an "accelerator" in the state's formula, under which a county with a positivity rate that qualifies for the least-restrictive yellow tier but a case rate that's in the red, the county would be permitted to move up to orange, according to Chau.

Here are Orange County's current coronavirus counts by city:

• Aliso Viejo - 405 Total Cases
• Anaheim - 9640 Total Cases
• Brea - 533 Total Cases
• Buena Park - 1618 Total Cases
• Costa Mesa - 1917 Total Cases
• Coto de Caza - 47 Total Cases
• Cypress - 580 Total Cases
• Dana Point - 295 Total Cases
• Fountain Valley - 533 Total Cases
• Fullerton - 2682 Total Cases
• Garden Grove - 3110 Total Cases
• Huntington Beach - 2493 Total Cases
• Irvine - 1774 Total Cases
• La Habra - 1518 Total Cases
• La Palma - 168 Total Cases
• Ladera Ranch - 184 Total Cases
• Laguna Beach - 236 Total Cases
• Laguna Hills - 336 Total Cases
• Laguna Niguel - 473 Total Cases
• Laguna Woods - 70 Total Cases
• Lake Forest - 879 Total Cases
• Los Alamitos - 217 Total Cases
• Midway City - 125 Total Cases
• Mission Viejo - 905 Total Cases
• Newport Beach - 1182 Total Cases
• Orange - 2597 Total Cases
• Placentia - 982 Total Cases
• Rancho Mission Viejo - 72 Total Cases
• Rancho Santa Margarita - 368 Total Cases
• Rossmoor - 67 Total Cases
• San Clemente - 559 Total Cases
• San Juan Capistrano - 589 Total Cases
• Santa Ana - 10843 Total Cases
• Seal Beach - 285 Total Cases
• Silverado - 43 Total Cases
• Stanton - 696 Total Cases
• Trabuco Canyon - 212 Total Cases
• Tustin - 1374 Total Cases
• Villa Park - 56 Total Cases
• Westminster - 1100 Total Cases
• Yorba Linda - 781 Total Cases