The number of coronavirus patients in Orange County hospitals increased by seven people to 120, according to the latest state figures released Saturday.
Of those patients, 16 were being treated in intensive care, unchanged from the previous day’s total.
Those numbers come two days after the county reported that its COVID-19 metrics remained relatively stable this week. OC logged 1,293 new cases of COVID-19 for the week and 23 additional deaths linked to the virus, bringing its cumulative totals to 674,462 cases and 7,541 fatalities since the pandemic began, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency.
Thirteen of the fatalities happened last month, increasing the death toll for October to 43. Five fatalities occurred in September, raising that month’s death toll to 73. Four deaths occurred in August, hiking that month’s death toll to 108. And one was in June, raising that month’s death toll to 58.
Health officials have said the majority of people who die from COVID-19 are either elderly, have underlying health conditions, or both.
The county’s test positivity rate went from 5.3% to 5%, with the statistic going from 4.7% to 4.4% in the health equity quartile, which measures the communities hardest hit by the pandemic. The daily case rate per 100,000 went from 4.7 to 4.8 on a seven-day average with a seven-day lag, and remained at 4.9 in the adjusted daily case rate per 100,000 on a seven-day average with a seven-day lag.
The positivity rate for those fully vaccinated with a booster went from 5.9 on Oct. 23 to 5.3 on Oct. 30, according to the latest data available. For those vaccinated with no booster the rate went from 2.9 to 3.1. For those not vaccinated the rate went from 6 to 6.3.
The OCHCA reports COVID data weekly on Thursdays.