SANTA ANA (CNS) — Orange County's COVID-19 hospitalizations and case rates continued a downward trend Tuesday, but January's death toll eclipsed the worst months of last summer's Delta variant surge, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency.
The county reported 25 more deaths Tuesday, with all but one having occurred in January. The first fatality for February was also logged last week, with a death on the first day of the month.
In total, January's death toll reached 230 people. The last time the county had a month reach that high a number was March of last year, with 202 fatalities, health officials said.
Despite the growth in fatal COVID cases, the number of COVID-positive patients in county hospitals is going down, slipping to 619 on Monday, with the number of patients in intensive care ticking up from 123 to 125.
The county had 19.4% of its ICU beds available and 60.6% of its ventilators as of Tuesday. Local health officials said the grow concerned when the level of ICU beds falls below 20%.
Of those hospitalized, 84% are unvaccinated and 87% in ICU are not, the OCHCA said.
The county also reported 309 more infections Tuesday, raising the cumulative total to 527,380 since the pandemic began nearly two years ago.
Outbreaks — defined as three or more infected residents — decreased from 36 to 31 at assisted living facilities from Feb. 2 to Feb. 7, the most recent data available, and ticked up from 24 to 25 for skilled nursing facilities.
The county's jails had 71 infected inmates as of Tuesday, down from 137 on Monday with the results of 142 tests pending.
The county's adjusted daily new case rate per 100,000 residents dropped from 65.9 on Monday to 58.2 Tuesday. The testing positivity rate dropped from 11.8% to 11.3% and fell from 10.2% to 9.5% in the health equity quartile, which measures underserved communities hardest hit by the pandemic.
Jan. 11 has been the deadliest day so far last month with 14 fatalities. That tops the deadliest day during the summer surge by one. The deadliest day so far during the pandemic was Jan. 2, 2021, when 71 people succumbed to COVID-related causes.
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