The number of COVID-positive patients in Orange County fell by 13 people to 169, according to the latest state numbers.
Of those patients hospitalized as of Saturday, 18 were being treated in intensive care, down from 21 the previous day.
An estimated 62.8% of those hospitalized are unvaccinated or partly vaccinated, officials with the Orange County Health Care Agency said. The ICU patients are 63.8% partly or unvaccinated.
Hospitalizations of COVID-infected patients had been going up and down since a steady rise ended on Dec. 7. But more recently, the hospitalizations were in a steady decline before leveling off last week.
The OCHCA logged 57 more fatalities linked to the coronavirus last week, increasing the cumulative death toll from throughout the pandemic to 7,848. The majority of those who die with COVID-19 are elderly or have underlying health conditions such as diabetes, hearts disease or hypertension.
The county also logged 1,400 new cases of COVID-19, hiking the cumulative total to 707,008.
The test positivity rate went from 7.5% to 6.3% and decreased from 7.4% to 6.3% in the health equity quartile, which measures the communities hardest hit by the pandemic.
The daily case rate per 100,000 went from 6.2 to 5 on a seven-day average with a seven-day lag, and went from 6.6 to 5.1 in the adjusted daily case rate per 100,000 on a seven-day average with a seven-day lag.
The OCHCA reports COVID data every Thursday.
The positivity rate for those fully vaccinated with a booster, which was 7 on Jan. 15, dropped to 4.2 on Jan. 22. For those vaccinated with no booster, the rate went from 5 to 4.1. For those not vaccinated the rate went from 10.7 to 8.1.
The statewide total of COVID-positive patients decreased by 72 people Saturday to 2,404. Some of the patients entered the hospital for other reasons and learned they had the coronavirus after a mandated test.