Orange County’s COVID-19 hospitalizations continued a steady decline Saturday, falling from 538 to 482, according to the latest state figures.
Of those patients, 101 were in intensive care, down from 102 on Friday.
The county had 22.2% of its ICU beds available and 59.6% of its ventilators as of Thursday. Local health officials become concerned when the level of ICU beds falls below 20%.
Of those hospitalized, 84% are unvaccinated and 86% in ICU are not inoculated, the Orange County Health Care Agency reported.
The county also reported 1,242 new positive COVID tests and 43 additional deaths associated with the virus on Thursday, bringing its cumulative totals to 530,036 cases and 6,308 fatalities.
The OCHCA did not provide an update on Friday because of the Lincoln’s birthday holiday, and the agency does not update COVID numbers on weekends.
Five of the fatalities logged Thursday were skilled nursing facility residents and one was an assisted living facility resident, raising the death tolls in those categories to 1,251 and 657, respectively.
Dr. Regina Chinsio-Kwong, the county’s deputy health officer, said she expects the death toll from the Omicron variant-fueled winter surge to keep rising. She said the fatalities will continue to roll in over the next two months with “high death numbers.” Most of the victims are unvaccinated and those who were inoculated tend to be elderly and have underlying health issues, she said.