OC Strives Toward Orange Tier, More Schools Prepare To Open

ORANGE COUNTY, CA — On Thursday, Orange County officials reported six more people have died as a result of COVID-19. The county's new death toll is 1,182, with 84 new diagnoses of coronavirus, hiking the cumulative to 52,622.

Since Sunday, the county reported 55 coronavirus fatalities.

Two of the deaths reported Thursday were skilled nursing facility residents and two lived in assisted living facilities.

The deaths were spread out over the past few weeks, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency. The lag in reporting is common since the data come from multiple sources, officials say. The last double-digit day of fatalities occurred Aug. 27 when a dozen people died.

Since the pandemic began, 433 of the fatalities were skilled nursing facility residents and 83 lived in assisted living facilities.

Four of the fatalities since the pandemic began were transients, up from one, which was reported Tuesday.

"Even though the disease transmission is much lower in our communities, today the risk is still the same for those individuals with underlying health conditions," Orange County CEO Frank Kim said. "We know people are interacting and we have to be very careful with people who are older or who have underlying health conditions. The risk hasn't changed."

Officials are concerned that as more businesses reopen, residents might let down their guard and be less vigilant about following social distancing guidelines, Kim said.

"We're all going through it as an entire country. As we reopen more, you'll continue to see a disproportionate number of people who pass away," Kim said. "Just because your risk of infection is lower because there's less transmission in the community, doesn't mean that the actual risk of contracting COVID-19 has diminished, especially for those who are older and have underlying conditions."

Orange County officials say COVID-19 numbers are improving enough to move it up a level, to the orange tier, within a week if trends continue. The overall positivity rate went from 3.9% to 3.1%, and the daily case count per 100,000 people dropped from 4.7 to 3.6.

"I expect we will go to the orange tier next Tuesday," Supervisor Lisa Bartlett said. "That's another huge milestone relative to getting the upper hand on coronavirus in Orange County."

The county has to remain within that range for another week, then it can move up from the red to the orange tier.

"It's a big week," Kim said. "If we miss it this week, you have to wait another seven days."
Considering the average incubation period of two weeks, if Labor Day gatherings were going to have an effect, county officials would be seeing it by now, he said.

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

The orange tier boosts capacity for churches, restaurants, movies, museums, zoos and aquariums from 25% capacity to half capacity. Gyms and fitness centers could boost capacity from 10% to 25% and reopen pools.

The orange tier also allows family entertainment centers like bowling alleys and wall-climbing to open indoors to 25% capacity.

Across Orange County, the citywide cumulative coronavirus totals as of Thursday are as follows:

• Aliso Viejo - 377 Total Cases
• Anaheim - 8992 Total Cases
• Brea - 474 Total Cases
• Buena Park - 1502 Total Cases
• Costa Mesa - 1790 Total Cases
• Coto de Caza - 44 Total Cases
• Cypress - 543 Total Cases
• Dana Point - 271 Total Cases
• Fountain Valley - 503 Total Cases
• Fullerton - 2410 Total Cases
• Garden Grove - 2872 Total Cases
• Huntington Beach - 2374 Total Cases
• Irvine - 1641 Total Cases
• La Habra - 1404 Total Cases
• La Palma - 154 Total Cases
• Ladera Ranch - 169 Total Cases
• Laguna Beach - 214 Total Cases
• Laguna Hills - 308 Total Cases
• Laguna Niguel - 426 Total Cases
• Laguna Woods - 50 Total Cases
• Lake Forest - 834 Total Cases
• Los Alamitos - 171 Total Cases
• Midway City - 122 Total Cases
• Mission Viejo - 814 Total Cases
• Newport Beach - 1111 Total Cases
• Orange - 2395 Total Cases
• Placentia - 920 Total Cases
• Rancho Mission Viejo - 62 Total Cases
• Rancho Santa Margarita - 344 Total Cases
• Rossmoor - 67 Total Cases
• San Clemente - 507 Total Cases
• San Juan Capistrano - 498 Total Cases
• Santa Ana - 10164 Total Cases
• Seal Beach - 276 Total Cases
• Silverado - 43 Total Cases
• Stanton - 644 Total Cases
• Trabuco Canyon - 198 Total Cases
• Tustin - 1243 Total Cases
• Villa Park - 53 Total Cases
• Westminster - 1004 Total Cases
• Yorba Linda - 706 Total Cases

Orange County's schools are already eligible to reopen for indoor, personal instruction, but not all of them will reopen right away. Schools in Fountain Valley reopened on Tuesday.

It is up to school districts to decide and many are offering "hybrid models" of some in-person instruction and some online-only instruction, Kim said. Some school districts will allow parents to continue with distance learning only.

If there is a breakout at any of the schools, they would have to close for two weeks and have no more COVID-19 cases before reopening, said Dr. Clayton Chau, the county's Health Care Agency director and chief health officer.

Last week, the county reported 34 fatalities, down from 42 the week prior.

Hospitalizations in the county dipped from 175 on Wednesday to 168, with the number of patients in intensive care declining from 51 to 42.

The OCHCA reported that 819,311 COVID-19 tests have been conducted, including 8,403 reported Thursday. There have been 47,513 documented recoveries.

Officials are not concerned about a lack of testing to help vault the county into the orange tier, Kim said. The county has promoted testing among retail and food industry workers and among educators, he said.

A week ago, the county had 157.7 per 100,000 residents testing on average and as of Wednesday that number was up to 214 per 100,000, he said.

"That's a pretty big jump," he said.

Since the pandemic began, 362 of those infected who died were 85 years or older, 252 were 75 to 84, 241 were 65-74, 170 were 55-64, 103 were 45- 54, 32 were 35-44, 17 were 25-34, four were 18-24 and one was a child.

The county has 66% of its ventilators available and 32% of its intensive care unit beds. The change in three-day average hospitalized patients is -6.7%.

To move up from the second-most restrictive red tier 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%.

City News Service, Patch Editor Ashley Ludwig contributed to this report.