Hospitalizations continue to decline as Orange County reports 47 new COVID-19 deaths – NBC Los Angeles

Orange County reported 1,448 new cases of COVID-19 and 47 additional deaths on Sunday, bringing the county to a total of 210,813 and 2,367 deaths.

Hospitalization rates continued to decline, dropping to 2,026 on Sundays, according to the Orange County Healthcare Agency. The number of coronavirus patients in the intensive care unit decreased by four to 538, a slight decrease from last Sunday’s record of 547.

Of the 47 deaths reported on Sunday, 6 were residents of skilled long-term care facilities and 8 were residents of life support facilities. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, the virus has killed 730 skilled care facility residents and 259 assisted living facility residents.

Death reports are staggered and can take weeks to be recorded, but December has been the worst month for the county since the pandemic began, with 538 deaths recorded since that month. I did. According to OCHCA statistics, 379 people died in July and 367 people died in August, above the peak of summer. The worst day so far was December 22, when 32 people died.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Office, the Coroner’s Office, had to provide a freezer on the trailer to store an average of about 100 bodies until the funeral home could catch up and take them, said Frank, CEO of Orange County. Kim said.

The county’s state-adjusted ICU bed availability remained zero, with unadjusted figures dropping from 7.8% on Saturday to 5.5%. The state has created a metric tailored to reflect the differences in beds available to COVID-19 and non-coronavirus patients. 36% of ventilators are available in the county.

In the Southern California region, ICU availability remains zero.

In the 25,761 test reported on Sunday, the cumulative total increased to 2,430,704. There were 136,506 documented collections.

Adjusted daily case rates per 100,000 people in Orange County (announced Tuesday) increased from 67.8 last week to 78.8.

The county’s health inequal quartile positive rate, which measures cases in poor areas with high county influence, rose from 23.4% last week to 24.2%.

The county’s 7-day positive rate is 19.5%. While the demand for vaccination is skyrocketing, the demand for testing is also slowing. According to Kim, authorities do not expect hospitalization rates to drop significantly until at least the end of January.

After the first case of a new COVID-19 mutant was identified in LA County, health officials say there are many reasons for residents to crouch, stay home, and leave the crowd. Michelle Valles will report on NBC4 News on Sunday, January 17, 2021.

The county’s Othena.com app and website, which allows residents to get vaccination information and book vaccinations at Disneyland’s megasite, which opened on Wednesday, has been used frequently since it went online on Tuesday. I am. According to Kim, website hits and app downloads totaled over 100 million this week.

The county on Thursday opened 3,600 reservation slots on Sunday, he said, all of which were acquired in 13 minutes.

On Friday, some residents inoculated at Disneyland were given tickets to help staff track the time it took to complete the process. Kim said it took an hour or two on Wednesday, but was reduced to 42 minutes on Friday.

“I was really happy to get it in less than an hour, which means I can start increasing capacity,” he said.

According to Kim, the county will hire about 120 temporary workers to support staffing. Another team is working on recruiting and screening volunteers.

Officials also added that they have resolved bugs in the app and are expected to address the most common concerns and issues with the new version, which is awaiting Apple’s approval.

“I think most of the problems are behind us now,” Kim said.

The county’s chief health officer and HCA director, Dr. Clayton Chau, said shortly after the state’s revised guidelines, older people aged 65 and over moved to the forefront of vaccines this week. He said 54% of COVID-19 patients admitted to 13 OC hospitals were 61 years or older and 71% of ICUs were 61 years or older, according to a survey. Nearly 72% of people wearing a ventilator are over 61 years old.

“75 percent of those who died in Orange County are also older than 65,” Chau said on Tuesday.

Over the past two weeks, the county has set up a pop-up clinic to deliver vaccines to the area’s “dense pockets for the elderly,” Kim said.

He said Orange County expects to spend $ 60 to $ 70 million on the Super POD vaccine site. Ultimately, the county has up to five megasites and wants to place them regionally throughout the county and the next megasite at the north or south end.

But first, the county promises to stabilize Disneyland’s site and staff well-trained volunteers before opening the second site. This is backfilled by staff in case volunteers do not come to work.

Also, the county needs a supply of sufficient vaccine to justify opening another site, officials say.

According to Chau, the county expects another 35,000 doses next week, processing a distribution of about 20% of the dose sent by the state, with the rest borne by healthcare providers.

Sheriffs reported that the number of prisoners in Orange County Prison infected with the coronavirus had dropped from 254 on Thursday to 181 on Friday. Authorities are waiting for the results of 428 tests, with five to three prisoners hospitalized on Tuesday.

Outbreaks (defined as two more in the last two weeks) have plagued skilled care facilities and elderly support living facilities. As of Friday, 38 skilled care facilities and 49 assisted living facilities were coping with the outbreak.

The average time to unload a patient from an ambulance is 49 minutes 59 seconds, 90% of the time.

The Fairview Developmental Center houses 13 Orange County Coronavirus patients and a dozen Los Angeles County.