Drive Up Flu Shot Clinic Established In OC: Coronavirus Update

ORANGE COUNTY, CA — The Orange County Health Care Agency Thursday reported four additional COVID-19 fatalities and 140 newly diagnosed infections, raising the death toll to 1,115 and the cumulative caseload to 51,399 since the coronavirus pandemic began.

The HCA has reported 22 deaths since Sunday. Last week, the OCHCA reported 42 COVID-19 fatalities. The week before saw 76 deaths reported.

Three of the fatalities reported Thursday were skilled nursing facility residents and one lived in assisted living facility. Since the pandemic began, 421 skilled nursing facility residents and 76 assisted living facility residents have succumbed to the coronavirus.

Hospitalizations in the county dipped from 202 Wednesday to 198 Thursday, with patients in intensive care dropping from 67 to 64.

The county's daily case count per 100,000 people fell from 5.2 last week to 4.7, and the seven-day rate of residents testing positive for the coronavirus dropped from 4.2% last week to 3.9%.

To move up to the orange tier in the state's four-tier monitoring system, the county must have a daily new case rate per 100,000 of 1 to 3.9 and a positivity rate of 2 to 4.9%. Orange County currently is at red tier numbers.

The county has 37% of its intensive care unit beds available and 64% of its ventilators available. The change in the 3-day average for hospitalized patients stands at -0.5%.

The OCHCA reported that 765,382 COVID-19 tests have been conducted, including 9,601 reported Thursday. There have been 46,153 documented recoveries.

All schools will be allowed to reopen for in-class instruction by Tuesday, OCHCA Director Dr. Clayton Chau told the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. So far, the county has approved 140 elementary schools to reopen through the state's waiver process, Chau said.

The supervisors also approved a plan to set up drive-thru flu vaccine clinics in each of the county's five districts to help stave off a potential "twindemic" of the flu and COVID-19 this fall, along with a plan to expand testing to reach residents who are of Asian-Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern and North African heritage.

"The Latino community remains the highest hot spot in the county, but the next highest is the API community as well as Middle Eastern and North African," Supervisor Andrew Do said. "This shows the board is very proactive in trying to address potential hot spots."

City News Service contributed to this report.