Orange County’s vaccination numbers have increased, according to Supervisor Katrina Foley, but so have the number of COVID-19 related hospitalizations.
The O.C. Health Care Agency confirmed four new deaths and 571 hospitalizations on Thursday. County public health officials pointed to the highly contagious Delta variant in a Tuesday news conference as a cause of the most recent surge in new cases.
The vast majority of new cases are among the unvaccinated, according to state data. Across California, there are 500 percent higher case rates among the unvaccinated than for those who are vaccinated.
“We’re already mirroring what we saw in the first surge. The hope is that we don’t mirror what we saw in the winter,” said deputy O.C. Health Officer Dr. Regina Chinsio-Kwong.
Chinsio-Kwong said she expects hospitalizations will peak in early September. Health officials believe the increasing number of vaccinated people is a good sign for halting the spread and reducing hospitalizations.
“For ages 12 and over, we’re at about 74 percent with our community with at least one vaccination, so that is trending in the right direction,” said Foley.
“For fully vaccinated residents, we are now at 66 percent, so, again, trending in the right direction.”
The latest surge comes as O.C. and Los Angeles school districts are welcoming kids back to classes for in-person learning, which has health officials expecting an increase in children contracting COVID-19.
“I’m predicting that we’ll probably see a surge in the younger kids — the 0 to 18 years,” O.C. Health Officer Dr. Clayton Chau told Voice of OC.
“We’re not out of the woods for children because we’re bringing children back into school settings now.”