OC Health Officials Report 1,333 New COVID-19 Cases, 7 Additional Deaths
SANTA ANA (CBSLA) — Orange County Health Care Agency officials reported 1,333 new cases of COVID-19 Wednesday bringing the total to 20,225.
The county also reported seven additional deaths bringing the total number of fatalities to 376.
The number of hospitalized patients also increased Wednesday, with 679 hospitalized, including 234 in intensive care units.
"The numbers are going to stay high for the next seven days," Kim said.
According to Kim, the rise in infections was expected to occur as officials relaxed restrictions.
The county is also monitoring a significant rise in infections in the 25 to 34 age group.
"They're number one with a bullet," Kim said. "They all kind of left the gate at the same time, but (25-to 34-year-olds) are winning the race by a mile now."
On Monday, Orange County Supervisor Lisa Bartlett said events such as Memorial Day weekend gatherings and protests stemming from the George Floyd killing likely led the increase.
On June 18, there were six specimens that led to COVID-19 positive diagnoses and 125 by June 24. The positive cases steadily climbed to 196 on June 26 before decreasing.
"That would be the incubation period," Bartlett said of the two- to three-week incubation period for the virus before symptoms emerge.
"How do you go from one week you've got two and a week later 159? There's something that was a trigger point to have that kind of an increase and those are dates the specimen was collected, which makes sense when they're getting sick two or three weeks out."
Kim also said hospital officials are still preparing for a surge they are not sounding any alarms about being able to handle the increases in patients.
"For sure they're managing bed capacity, but they didn't seem freaked out," Kim said.
As of Tuesday, county officials had performed 285,482 COVID-19 tests and documented 9,174 recoveries.
(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)
