Orange County’s number of coronavirus cases has climbed by 67 to an overall total of 1,753, while the death toll ticked up by one to 34.
The number of hospitalized patients increased from 148 on Tuesday to 162 on Wednesday, with the number of intensive care patients climbing from 54 to 70.
The COVID-19 cases have risen as county Health Care Agency officials grapple with outbreaks at a nursing home in Huntington Beach and another one in Anaheim. Overall, there have been 170 coronavirus cases in the county’s nursing homes with 102 residents diagnosed with COVID-19 and 68 staffers falling ill to the virus.
County officials have contracted with a temporary nursing staffing agency to make sure there are enough emergency medical technicians to help in the event that nursing home staffers refuse to report for work.
Two residents of Huntington Valley Health Care Center in Huntington Beach — a 77-year-old and a 79-year-old — died this week. Fourteen other patients are hospitalized, and 24 staffers have tested positive for the virus.
Of the county’s total cases, 2% involve people under 18 years old; 7% are between 18-24; 16% are between 25-34; 14% are between 35-44; 39% are between 45-64, and 21% are 65 or older. Men make up 53% of the county’s cases and 62% of its fatalities.
Of the deaths, 6% were 25 to 34 years old, 3% were 35 to 44, 32% were 45 to 64, and 59% were 65 or older, according to the OCHCA. People of Asian descent accounted for 32% of the fatalities, while 26% were Latino, 29% were white, 6% were black, 3% were of unknown ethnicity and 3% were in the category of “other.”
The number of people tested for COVID-19 in the county stands at 20,145, with enough kits for 2,371 more specimens. Public and private labs have performed 662 tests since Tuesday.
Orange County’s chief health officer, Dr. Nichole Quick, said health officials believe that the “statewide stay-at-home order has been effective.”
A key step in lifting restrictions is to increase testing, and OCHCA officials began a new network of tests for COVID-19 on Tuesday. David Souleles, deputy agency director of Public Health Services, announced six testing sites spread out through the county. Initially, the county is expected to boost tests by 600 per day.
Residents who have symptoms related to coronavirus who lack insurance or cannot get a test through their health care provider can now go to AltaMed sites in Anaheim and Santa Ana as well as Nhan Hoa Comprehensive Health Care Clinic in Garden Grove and various UC Irvine Health sites.
“Our goal is to get 10 sites up and running in the next two weeks, so we can get up to 1,000 tests per day and then move onto 2,000 tests per day next month,” Souleles said.
Ultimately, the county is shooting to test about 640,000 residents.
Previously, only severely ill patients were being tested because of the scarcity of supplies, Souleles said, but “now we are opening it up to anybody who is symptomatic.”
The testing network uses kits that obtain a specimen used to diagnose the coronavirus. Blood tests that measure antibodies to see if someone has had COVID-19 and recovered from it will be tools to help with quarantining and contact tracing in the future, officials said.
The serology tests “will play a key role long-term in helping us understand herd immunity and how widely spread COVID-19 has been in our community, how many have experienced it and how many have been mildly symptomatic and asymptomatic,” Souleles said.
Quick said even when some restrictions are lifted, the most vulnerable, such as senior citizens, will be asked to continue adhering to stay-at-home orders.
“When we go back to loosening up stay-at-home orders we want to be able to identify a case as soon as there is one and then do” contact tracing, Quick said. “We can’t just open this up and not see a rapid increase in cases,” Quick said. “The last thing we want to do is open the flood gates and watch our case counts go up uncontrolled.”
The Orange County Board of Supervisors, meanwhile, voted 3-2 Tuesday to require face coverings for employees in many retail businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The face coverings will be required, beginning Friday, for employees interacting with the public in grocery, pharmacy and convenience stores, as well as gas stations, restaurants and other locations where food is prepared. Supervisors Lisa Bartlett and Doug Chaffee supported Supervisor Andrew Do’s motion. Board Chairwoman Michelle Steel and Supervisor Don Wagner dissented.
The ordinance applies countywide. Cities can approve more restrictive laws, but cannot have one weaker than the county order.