600+ Hospitalized In Orange County Confirms New Coronavirus Surge

ORANGE COUNTY, CA — On Monday, Orange County's Health Care Agency reported 734 new COVID-19 cases but no additional deaths. Hospitalizations have topped 600, with 146 of those hospitalized residents currently in intensive care.

The county's cumulative case count stands at 78,553 and the death toll remains unchanged at 1,577.

In Orange County Schools, as of Nov. 14, there are nine cases of students with coronavirus, six teachers are infected with the virus, and 20 other staff members have contracted the virus. Of those, 24 are in elementary or middle schools, eight are in high schools, and no cases are reported in K-12 combined schools. At the college or vocational school level, three people have contracted coronavirus as of Nov. 14.

The change in the three-day average of hospitalized patients went from 13.6% to 17%. The last time hospitalization rates were this high was the end of July, and the last time ICU rates were this high was around Aug. 10.
The county has 26% of its intensive care unit beds and 62% of its ventilators available as numbers approach July totals.

The mounting numbers over the holiday weekend seem to confirm officials' fears of a Thanksgiving-fueled surge. Orange County CEO Frank Kim said last week that he was "very concerned" about the rise in cases and hospitalizations.

"And even though the various hospital (executives) I have conversations with seem more confident today than they were early on in the disease in how to treat it, I'm not taking any of it lightly," Kim said. "Any rise in hospitalizations and ICU rates is a significant concern for our community."
Officials recommend waiting at least two days after traveling or attending an event or gathering to get tested because the infection might not be detected right away.

Andrew Noymer, a UC Irvine associate professor of population health and disease prevention, said the recent election was responsible in part for the most recent surge and warned of a grim winter. With deaths from summer recorded through October, Noymer looked ahead to Thanksgiving as the beginning of another deadly trend.

"But this is not just going to be like another July and go away," he said. "I think it's going to get worse."

He predicts that at the end of this week, "we'll be back to July (levels). And will it crest like in July or keep getting worse. There's reasons to believe we could just keep getting worse."

Noymer said that's mainly because the colder weather is pushing people into more indoor activities and some students are still attending classes in classrooms.

The worst day for COVID-19 hospitalizations in Orange County was July 14, when there were 722 patients.

In the state's tiered monitoring system, which is updated on Tuesdays, the county's adjusted daily case rate per 100,000 residents jumped from 10.8 to 17.2 last week and the positivity rate swelled from 4.6% to 6.8%. As of Monday, the adjusted daily case rate per 100,000 stood at 18.7 with a positivity rate of 7.6%.

The positivity rate still barely fits in the red tier of the state's four-tier reopening roadmap, but the daily case rate per 100,000 is well past the 8% threshold for the most-restrictive purple tier.

Kim said he was optimistic vaccines are on the way and are scheduled to arrive by year's end. Hospital systems will get the vaccines directly and individual hospitals will receive doses from the county, Kim said.

Frontline health care workers will be among the first to receive vaccinations, along with people with underlying health conditions that make them especially vulnerable to the disease.

The hope is that increased testing and awareness of infections will encourage more quarantining and isolation and other social distancing practices that help curb the spread of the virus, Kim said.

The county's tests per 100,000 jumped from last week's 354.1 to 419.1, outstripping the county's goals for testing at this point, Kim said.

Orange County Health Care remains focused on encouraging testing.

The number of tests conducted in the county was 1,452,198, including 7,015 reported Monday. There have been 59,783 estimated recoveries since the pandemic began.

Across Orange County cities, the current coronavirus totals are:

• Aliso Viejo - 622 Total Cases
• Anaheim - 13168 Total Cases
• Brea - 839 Total Cases
• Buena Park - 2268 Total Cases
• Costa Mesa - 2658 Total Cases
• Coto de Caza - 70 Total Cases
• Cypress - 816 Total Cases
• Dana Point - 431 Total Cases
• Fountain Valley - 855 Total Cases
• Fullerton - 3752 Total Cases
• Garden Grove - 4505 Total Cases
• Huntington Beach - 3351 Total Cases
• Irvine - 2732 Total Cases
• La Habra - 2129 Total Cases
• La Palma - 223 Total Cases
• Ladera Ranch - 271 Total Cases
• Laguna Beach - 333 Total Cases
• Laguna Hills - 478 Total Cases
• Laguna Niguel - 709 Total Cases
• Laguna Woods - 105 Total Cases
• Lake Forest - 1257 Total Cases
• Los Alamitos - 316 Total Cases
• Midway City - 196 Total Cases
• Mission Viejo - 1328 Total Cases
• Newport Beach - 1488 Total Cases
• Orange - 3738 Total Cases
• Placentia - 1426 Total Cases
• Rancho Mission Viejo - 105 Total Cases
• Rancho Santa Margarita - 519 Total Cases
• Rossmoor - 76 Total Cases
• San Clemente - 873 Total Cases
• San Juan Capistrano - 873 Total Cases
• Santa Ana - 15153 Total Cases
• Seal Beach - 365 Total Cases
• Silverado - 45 Total Cases
• Stanton - 921 Total Cases
• Trabuco Canyon - 288 Total Cases
• Tustin - 1922 Total Cases
• Villa Park - 92 Total Cases
• Westminster - 1708 Total Cases
• Yorba Linda - 1195 Total Cases