‘Pandemic Of Unvaccinated’ Doubles OC's ICU:Report

ORANGE COUNTY, CA — Officials report that Orange County's COVID-19 hospitalizations have risen to mid-March levels while vaccination rates have correspondingly flattened as of Monday.

More than 95 percent of those currently hospitalized in the county for coronavirus are unvaccinated, Orange County CEO Frank Kim said.

As of Monday, the number of those hospitalized for COVID-19 in Orange County rose to 140 hospitalized, with 59 in intensive care units, as opposed to from 119 patients, with 25 of those in intensive care one week ago.

However, the state Department of Public Health reported there were 148 COVID-19 patients in Orange County, with 61 in intensive care, as of Sunday.

The last time there were that many patients in intensive care was March 16, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency.

The state will release weekly averages on Tuesday.

The county, meanwhile has returned to more frequent schedule of releasing numbers every weekday in light of the increasing number of infections.

As of Monday, the case rate per 100,000 residents was 4.9. The test positivity rate was 3.3%, with the rate at 3.4% for residents in the lower health equity quartile, which measures the rate among underprivileged residents in neighborhoods hardest hit by the pandemic.

Last Tuesday, the county's average daily new case rate per 100,000 residents jumped up from 1.5 the previous week to 2.6, while the overall test positivity rate ticked up from 1.2% to 1.8%. The county's Health Equity Quartile rate climbed from 1.4% to 1.9%.

The county also reported two new COVID-19 fatalities since last week, upping the cumulative total to 5,135, catching up with cases from months previous. One fatality was in April and the other in January.

Only one person has died as a result of coronavirus in June, thus far. The death toll for June is 14; 22 for May; 43 for April; 198 for March; 610 for February; 1,563 for January, the deadliest month of the pandemic so far; and 967 for December, the next deadliest.

"The hope is that we don't see much more of an accelerated pace of COVID than we saw before vaccines were widely available," Kim told City News Service. "At our peak, we had 79 cases per 100,000, with a 19.7% positivity rate... We're hoping we don't see those types of numbers again."
The high number of unvaccinated patients is "hopefully a reminder to the public that when they seek the risk of COVID, they would ask questions, get educated and consider the voluntary vaccine," Kim said.

Orange County officials have not discussed any new mask order, he said.