Orange County Reports New Record In COVID-19 Hospitalizations
SANTA ANA (CBSLA) — Orange County again surpassed its record for COVID-19 hospitalizations on Thursday.
The number of hospitalized patients increased from 2,249 Wednesday to 2,251 as the number of patients in intensive care jumped up from 485 to 502, according to figures from the Orange County Health Care Agency.
Officials also reported 29 additional fatalities. Of the deaths, nine were skilled nursing facility residents and five were assisted living facility residents.
The death toll currently stands at 1,972. Of the total, 664 people were from skilled nursing facilities and 203 from assisted living facilities.
County officials also reported 2,701 new diagnoses of coronavirus, bringing the cumulative total to 177,733.
This week alone, the county has reported 71 fatalities.
The death reports come from a variety of sources, so they are staggered and happened last month. The most recent deaths happened on Dec. 28, when two people fell victim to coronavirus. Dec. 14 marked a daily record during the pandemic, when 23 people died, besting the previous record of 20 on July 31. On Dec. 13, 21 people succumbed to COVID-19.
Last week, the county reported 56 COVID-19 fatalities, down from 85 the week before.
Orange County CEO Frank Kim said the new statistics were "concerning."
There were 31,915 tests reported on Thursday, raising the cumulative to 2,179,658, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency.
The Orange County Jail's recent outbreak saw another decline on Thursday with the number of infected inmates dropping from 1,120 to 1,020. The county is awaiting the results of 619 tests.
The number of hospitalized inmates increased from four to six, according to Orange County Sheriff's Sgt. Dennis Breckner.
The county's state-adjusted ICU bed availability remains at zero, and the unadjusted figure decreased from 6% Wednesday to 5.6% Thursday. The state created the adjusted metric to reflect the difference in beds available for COVID-19 patients and non-coronavirus patients.
The county's availability of ventilators inched up from 32% Wednesday to 33% Thursday.
(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)
