Orange County’s COVID-19 hospitalizations continued to climb Friday, adding more than 50 patients in a day, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency.
On Thursday, hospitalizations exceeded the peak of the first COVID infection wave in July 2020, and officials reported a child younger than 5 had died from the disease, the county’s third pediatric death of the pandemic.
According to the OCHCA, the number of COVID-infected hospital patients in Orange County increased from 724 Thursday to 779 Friday, with the number of patients in intensive care jumping up from 109 to 122.
The last time hospitalizations reached that level was mid-February of last year, during a post-holiday winter surge of infections.
Exactly one year ago — on Jan. 7, 2021 — the all-time record was set for COVID hospitalizations with 2,259 patients, just as vaccines were being rolled out for front-line medical staff and first responders.
The summer 2021 peak of hospitalizations was reached on Aug. 26, with 592 patients.
During the first virus wave in the summer of 2020, hospitalizations peaked July 14 at 722.
“This is now officially the second-largest wave in terms of peak hospitalizations,” Andrew Noymer, an epidemiologist and UC Irvine professor of population health and disease prevention, told City News Service on Thursday.
The key differences in the summer of 2020 were “no vaccines and there were very few N95 masks in the public’s hands,” Noymer said.
“The silver lining, I think, is that we may have fewer deaths as a proportion of those hospitalized because it seems Omicron results in less ventilator use and less severe outcomes even when hospitalized. It’s possible this won’t be as deadly as it looks at first blush, which is not to say it’s a nothingburger, because hospitalizations are never to be taken lightly.”
Meanwhile, the county reported 6,428 new COVID cases Friday, boosting the cumulative total to 374,860. The county also logged three more fatalities, increasing the overall death toll to 5,906.
All of the deaths logged Friday occurred in December. The death toll for last month is now 57.
Two fatalities reported Thursday were skilled nursing facility residents, hiking the number of deaths in that category since the pandemic began to 1,220. The overall death toll also includes 647 assisted living facility residents.
There has been a jump in outbreaks in nursing homes in this current wave, with outbreaks in 23 elderly assisted living facilities and 17 skilled nursing facilities.
The county has officially sequenced 292 cases of the Omicron variant as of Sunday, the latest data available, according to the OCHCA’s data.
County CEO Frank Kim said this week the county may have reached the peak of the surge in infections, but “I don’t want to say that for sure.” He noted that it’s difficult to determine just how many residents are getting infected because some get their results from at-home kits.
“Everyone’s buying an at-home test from CVS or Walmart and Amazon and there is a QR code so technically you should scan the QR code so there’s a record, but I suspect very few people are doing that,” Kim said.
Orange County Board Vice Chairman Doug Chaffee, who’s in line to become to board chairman next week, said he was concerned about how the surge will affect staffing at local hospitals.
“The hospital numbers are high and we have capacity, but do we have the workers to take care of people,” Chaffee said. “There’s a lot of stress on them, too. It all comes back to most cases are people who didn’t get vaccinated and they’re stressing everybody else out. It’s not very fair, but we just got to keep pushing, pleading and hoping that suddenly the light turns on and people get a shot.”
Noymer encouraged residents to get a booster shot. He noted that most people completed the two-dose regimen of the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna as of July, so they are eligible for a booster shot and should get one as soon as possible.
Orange County had 18.3% of its intensive care unit patient beds available and 66% of its ventilators as of Friday. Of the hospitalized patients, 87% are unvaccinated, and 88% of the ICU patients are not inoculated.
The county’s adjusted daily case rate per 100,000 residents jumped from 53.6 Wednesday to 64 Thursday. The testing positivity rate soared up from 16.2% to 19.1%, and it increased from 16% to 19.3% in the health equity quartile, which measures underserved communities hardest hit by the pandemic.
The seven-day average for tests per 100,000 increased from 513.9 Wednesday to 561.2 Thursday.
Rising patient numbers have meant delays for people going to hospitals. The average time to drop off a patient at a hospital as of last week was between 46 and 47 minutes, according to OCHCA. By Thursday it was up to 52 and 53 minutes.
Orange County Supervisor Lisa Bartlett said Tuesday that county officials are encouraging hospitals to erect surge tents to help with triaging patients, as was done during last winter’s surge.
As of last week, nine of the county’s 25 hospitals had surge tents put up, she said.
The wave of infections is also affecting entertainment and courthouse functions.
Soka Performing Arts Center is postponing its season opening by two weeks. Officials at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa has canceled live performances for Saturday and Sunday because some of its theater company has tested positive for coronavirus. The theater hopes to resume performances Jan. 16.
At the Orange County Superior Courts, attorneys were being encouraged to do more virtual appearances for most hearings, reserving live appearances for evidentiary hearings and trials.
Starting Thursday, the Mission Viejo Library was requiring anyone wanting to use the library to make an appointment so the staff can socially distance patrons.
November’s death toll stands at 101,127 for October, 196 for September and 182 for August.
In contrast, the death toll before the more contagious Delta variant fueled a summer surge was 31 in July, 19 for June, 26 for May, 47 for April, 202 for March and 620 for February.
January 2021 remains the deadliest month of the pandemic with a death toll of 1,596, ahead of December 2020, the next deadliest with 985 people lost to the virus.
The case rate per 100,000 residents for the unvaccinated jumped from 60.6 on Dec. 25 to 180.1 as of Jan. 1. For the vaccinated the case rate increased from 37.9 on Christmas Day to 108.5 by New Year’s Day.
The number of fully vaccinated residents in Orange County increased from 2,328,647 to 2,341,562, according to data released Thursday.
That number includes an increase from 2,176,795 last week to 2,189,337 of residents who have received the two-dose regimen of vaccines from Pfizer or Moderna.
The number of residents receiving the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine increased from 151,852 to 152,225. Booster shots increased from 837,313 last week to 900,815.
In the relatively recently eligible age group of 5 to 11 years old, 46,791 kids have been vaccinated versus 221,789 who have not gotten jabbed. It’s the least vaccinated age group in the county. The next worst vaccinated age group is 25 to 34 with 312,736 inoculated and 146,665 who have not gotten a shot.
The most vaccinated age groups are seniors.